A Brother's Search
by Sugarrush71
Summary: A gruesome murder in an alley lead Beckett and Castle into a world of sleazy photographers, computer hackers and human trafficking. A Castle crime story set in Season 6 just before That 70's Show with a little Caskett.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first multi chapter story that I started just before the end of season 6. I set myself the challenge to write a story like a CASTLE episode. As I don't write for a living, just for fun, it took me a lot longer than I thought to finish. If nothing else this exercise has given me a greater respect for the writers of CASTLE at being able to come up with original ideas for 23 episodes a season. Constructive reviews are welcome. I'll try to release chapters regularly as much as work and life allows.

Disclaimer : Castle is the property of Andrew Marlowe, ABC and all the writers of Castle. Only the original characters and events are mine.

* * *

It is a typical cold, dark, February New York night. A figure is running down a street, staggering every few steps. As the figure gets closer it is revealed to be a young man with blond hair, wearing a large, dark coat and a backpack. The man staggers again and grips at his shoulder, grimacing in pain. At that moment, further down the street, a van, tyres squealing, comes around the corner. The man anxiously looks over his shoulder at the sound, sees the van and immediately ducks into a nearby alley. He rushes down the alley and squeezes himself between and behind a pair of dumpsters at its end. Peering from his hiding place he spies the van pass by the end of the alley and keep going. He ducks back with a sigh of relief and then waits a couple of minutes to make sure it's gone. Just as he pokes his head out again to check if it is safe he is blinded by headlights on high beam. There is the sound of an engine being revved to the red line followed by the sound of screeching tyres.

* * *

Morning in Castle's loft is the picture of domestic bliss. Richard Castle is at the stove, in his pyjamas, cooking breakfast as usual and humming a tune happily to the room. Kate Beckett is perched on a stool at the nearby counter, also in her sleep clothes, a steaming cup of coffee at her elbow, reading the paper and idly tapping her foot in time to Castle's humming. Into this scene sweeps Martha from the stairs leading to the second level.

"Good morning my dears!" she exclaims

"Good morning mother."

"Good morning Martha."

"Pancakes mother?"

"No thankyou Richard, just cereal for me today," she replies as she proceeds to the refrigerator and pours herself a glass of orange juice. Glass in hand she then sidles up to Beckett at the counter and asks, "Katherine, darling, might I ask a favour?"

The tone of his mother's voice causes Castle's head shoot up with a look of suspicion on his face. He's heard that tone all too many times before.

"Sure Martha," replies Beckett, putting the paper aside.

Martha continues in a voice sounding so innocent that it is almost too good to be true, "Seeing as you and Richard have decided to take a break from wedding planning this week, to reduce your stress levels, I was wondering if you would be interested in addressing one of my acting classes?"

This causes Castle to whip around to face the both of them, who have their backs to him, and start gesticulating at Beckett wildly. He's shaking his head and making cutting motions in front of his throat. Anything to get her attention and wave her off.

Beckett is surprised at the request and, not seeing the frantic miming behind her, asks, "Me, talk to your acting class, why?"

"Richard has told me of your skills in interrogations. Of presenting the right type of persona to get a person to talk. Whether it is to be tough and aggressive or a sympathetic listener or a mother confessor. Developing that that sort of empathetic connection with their audience is essential to a good actor. I thought going through your process would be invaluable for my students," responds Martha with a winning smile.

"Weeelll…I'm not sure…," and Beckett glances over her shoulder at Castle to see what he thinks only to finally see his silent, desperate performance. A look of puzzlement crosses her face.

A moment behind her, Martha also looks over at Castle as well and he immediately stops his arm waving. He changes to casually scratching his head to try and mask what he was doing.

"Ummm…," hesitates Beckett, thoroughly confused by Castle's act. Before she is forced to continue and as has happened many times before, especially for Castle, the ringing of her cell phone saves the day.

"Beckett!" she declares down the phone, "Right, where? OK, we're on our way. Sorry Martha, there's been a murder. Can I get back to you on this?"

"Of course my dear, but do think about it. I'm sure everyone will get a great deal out of it," implores Martha to her retreating back as Beckett and Castle hustle to their bedroom to get dressed.

* * *

Beckett and Castle walk down the alley towards the crime scene continuing the discussion that had started in the car on the way there.

"Castle, I don't know what you're so worried about. It seems like a perfectly innocent request to me."

"Of course it does, that's how she lures you in. She's lulling you into a false sense of security. She's wanting to put you in a position, on her terms, where she's in charge and you're out of your comfort zone. Then she can give you "constructive criticism" on how you do what you do. I've told you this before. She's been doing this to me for years. The number of times she's convinced me to do a reading of one of my books to her friends, acting colleagues, "acting students" and each time she's ripped me and my work apart. In front of everyone. It's her way of controlling my ego and making sure I don't get a big head."

"Yeah well, she did a great job there," grins Beckett.

"Ha Ha! Laugh it up now but if you do this you'll regret it"

"Oh come on Castle. Why would Martha be thinking that I'm getting a big head?"

"A big what now?" interrupts Esposito whom they both had just walked up to at that moment.

"Never mind," responds Beckett with a look. "What have we got?"

Eyebrows raised at her brisk answer Esposito responds as they all walk to the body, "Caucasian male, early twenties. He was found by sanitation workers this morning as they emptied the dumpsters at the end of this alley. He was wedged behind one of them."

"More like crushed," interjects Lanie from her position on her knees next to the body. "From the abrasions and broken bones I can just see here and from the blood on the wall and the dumpster our victim was behind the dumpster when it was hit by something, crushing him against the wall. He was also shot in the right shoulder just before he died."

"Ugh, what an unpleasant way to go," comments Castle.

"There aren't many good ones in my experience," responds Beckett. "So looks like he was trying to hide from whoever shot him."

"And that someone found him and decided to make him the meat in a dumpster and wall sandwich," surmises Castle.

"Any ID and an idea of the time of death?" Beckett asks Lanie.

"No ID. From the look of his pockets someone searched the body after he was crushed. From his smashed watch TOD was at 2:15 this morning and liver temp supports that time but I'll make sure of that when I get him back to the morgue."

Ryan walks up, note book in hand, "Hi guys, checked with the clothing store that backs onto this alley. No surprise, they were closed at the time of death and no one was there to hear anything. There aren't any security cams in the alley and with it being mostly stores and no apartments around here and at that time of the morning no one was around to hear or see anything."

"OK Ryan, coordinate a canvas by some unis anyway. Maybe we'll be lucky and someone saw something. Meanwhile Esposito, see if there are any traffic or security cams nearby that might help. Castle and I will head to the precinct and try running down his prints," and with Beckett's orders they break off to their separate tasks.

* * *

At the 12th precinct Beckett and Castle are standing at the murder board as Beckett slaps a picture of the victim up and starts writing on the board underneath it, "Our vic is in the system. His name was Samuel Carmody, 24 years old, a computer store clerk, originally from Arizona, no next of kin listed and with an address two blocks from our crime scene."

"So he was most likely on his way to or from home when he was killed. What was he in the system for?" asks Castle studying the mug shot of Carmody.

"Assault of a Michael Ferry, a photographer with a studio in Soho. The report says that Carmody and Ferry got into a fight at Ferry's studio six months ago. The neighbours complained and they were both pulled in. Carmody started it so he was charged but it didn't proceed because Ferry wouldn't testify."

Ryan joins them and says, "Canvas was a bust. As I thought, no one was there to see or hear anything. CSU found smashed headlight glass, tire marks and some paint chips at the point of impact with the dumpster. The glass and tyre prints match a 2005-2008 Ford delivery van. The paint chips are navy blue but curiously there are at least five other layers of different colours under the blue layer."

"Indicating the van has been resprayed several times. That's suspicious. Well slightly less suspicious than using it to ram a dumpster to kill someone I suppose," comments Castle.

Esposito calls from the doorway of the tech room, "Guys, I've got something."

As everyone files into the room he indicates to the large plasma screen at one end of the room and signals to their resident tech, Tori, standing at a keyboard to start the video. "This is from a security cam in front of a jewellery store a few doors down from the alley."

On the screen, a grainy black and white image of the street and footpath at night could be seen. After a few seconds they see a man, wearing a backpack, rush through the field of vision of the camera. As he passes he turns his head to look behind him. Esposito signals Tori again and the image is paused and they are all looking at a profile of their victim and says, "There's our vic. About 3 minutes before the time of death."

He indicates to the tech again and the video resumes playing. The victim moves out of the picture and about thirty seconds later a dark coloured van comes into view. Tori pauses the image again.

"And there's a Ford van," observes Beckett as she walks closer to the screen. "I can't see into it to see who is inside and I can't quite make out the plates." She turns to Tori, "Can you work on this and see if you can clear it up and get the registration."

"Sure thing Detective," responds the young brunette.

Beckett's cell phone chimes to indicate an incoming text message.

"Lanie wants me to go see her. While Castle and I do that, Ryan, you and Espo go and see the photographer, Ferry. See if he knows anything and if he has an alibi for the time of the murder."

"And see if he owns a navy blue van that's been resprayed several times," adds Castle.

Beckett rolls her eyes, "Come on Captain Obvious, after Lanie we'll go check out the vic's apartment."


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Here is the second chapter. Not as long as the first as I'm trying to keep the pace tight. Thanks to all that have reviewed and followed. I've tried to take on board the suggestions of one of my reviewers for who I thank for the feedback._

_Disclaimer : As always (no pun intended) Castle is the property of Andrew Marlowe, ABC and the rest of the Castle writing crew. I just like playing with thier creations. _

* * *

"What've you got Lanie?" asks Beckett as she and Castle push their way through the double doors into the stainless steel covered, cold and brightly light morgue.

Lanie looks up from her examination of the victim's body on the autopsy slab in front of her, "My examination has confirmed the time of death at between 2 and 3 am this morning. He was shot with a 9mm hand gun just before he died. But that wasn't what killed him. The wound's superficial and was shallow so he was shot from a distance. The cause of death was massive internal injuries and blood loss caused by the crush injuries consistent with being squashed behind the dumpster."

With morbid curiosity Castle lifts up the sheet partially covering the body to check out the injuries and blanches at what he sees there as Lanie continues, "Bruising on his back indicates that he was wearing something like a backpack when he was crushed."

"We saw him wearing a backpack in security cam footage taken just before he died but there wasn't a backpack at the crime scene," comments Castle.

"With no ID on him and his pockets turned out someone was looking for something so they probably took the backpack as well," responds Beckett.

"And I think I found it, inside the bullet wound," adds Lanie as she holds up small, sealed evidence bag.

Castle takes the bag and examines the contents, "A micro SD memory card from a phone or computer."

"From the blood on the victim's fingers he put that in the wound himself," posits Lanie.

Beckett takes the bag from Castle to inspect the card, "So he was hiding this from his killer. Why not try swallowing it if he wanted to hide it, it's small enough? It would have been pretty painful to put this in the wound."

"He probably knew there was a chance that the stomach acids would damage the card," chimes in Castle. "I once researched how Derrek Storm would hide an SD card on his body when he was captured by some Albanian terrorists. After finding out what the stomach acids would do I had to use the usual place in the body that someone, convicts and drug mules for instance, use to hide something."

Beckett crinkles her nose in mild distaste at that image, "OK, I'll send it to the CSU techs and see if they can find out what's on it. Anything else?"

Lanie nods and holds up another evidence bag, "If that wasn't curious enough, I found this embedded just under the skin of his left forearm."

Inside the bag is a small, clear capsule with what looks like electronic components inside. Initially Beckett takes the bag to examine the capsule but it is snatched from her grasp by an overeager Castle.

"You know what this is?" he exclaims with that oft seen look of boyish excitement. "This is a sub dermal RF transponder. Benignly it is used in dogs and cats to store an owner's details and the animal's registration. But this, in a human, has to be a tracking device. A tracking device used by a shadowy government agency wanting to keep tabs on a subject. I see it now, our vic was the recruit of an international terrorist organisation and a secret government agency put this in our victim, probably in his sleep. They were tracking his movements hoping that he would lead them to the rest of his cell and once he'd done that they took him out by ramming him behind the dumpster with their black SUV."

"Except we know that the dumpster was hit by blue van," counters Beckett.

Undaunted Castle responds, "Yes, well that aside this is a tracking device so someone was watching our victim and it is the sort of thing a three letter agency might do."

Beckett pauses as Lanie smirks at Castle's eagerness and Beckett's reaction. Beckett hates but also deep down secretly loves to feed Castle's wild theories and with exasperation in her voice responds, "Unfortunately, I can't think of another reason something like that would be under the skin of our victim. Send it to CSU as well and see if they can confirm what it is and what it does. Maybe they can get a manufacturer's markings or serial numbers from the components. I'll get the boys to see if anyone like the FBI had him under surveillance. Come on Castle, let's see if we can get some answers at his apartment."

* * *

Beckett and Castle are being led down the corridor of a low rent apartment building by its overweight, wife beater wearing and bearded super. From the stains on the hallway walls and the dirty floor underfoot Beckett could see that while this place wasn't classified as a slum it wasn't far off.

"How long had Mr Carmody been living here?" asks Beckett.

"About eight months," replies the super.

"What can you tell me about him, did he live alone?" continues Beckett.

"Not much. Kept to himself. Just him. Paid his rent on time, didn't make any noise and didn't bother me to have every little thing fixed, unlike some I could mention. Other than that I didn't care what he got up to," responded the super as he bent over to use his key to unlock an apartment door. Beckett and Castle share a look as they both think the same thing, "Boy this guy is REALLY helpful."

With the apartment open Beckett goes to step inside then turns and asks, "When was the last time you saw Mr Carmody?"

"Dunno, probably when he paid his rent at the start of the month," replies the super with indifference.

Beckett's questions are interrupted by an exclamation from Castle, who had proceeded into the apartment ahead of her, "Wow, either our victim didn't believe in tidying up after himself or this place has been seriously trashed by someone."

Upon entering the small, darkly painted apartment Beckett could see what he was talking about. The tiny living area, with a kitchen to one side, is turned upside down. The doors of all the cupboards are open and empty, all the drawers in sight are pulled out and their contents dumped on the floor and the cushions of the chairs are all slashed, stuffing everywhere. Dominating one wall is a bank of shelves and a desk all covered with smashed computer equipment.

Beckett turns on the super standing in the doorway, "And I suppose you don't know anything about someone searching this place?"

He just shrugs and with an exasperated look she slams the door in his face with, "Thanks for ALL your help. We'll be sure to come see you if we think you can be of any further assistance."

"Remind me never to stay in a building that guy has anything to do with," comments Castle as he and Beckett snap on their blue crime scene gloves. He picks his way over the mess to examine the smashed computer equipment. Beckett starts making a first pass of the apartment to see if there is anything obviously connected to the case, besides the state of the place.

As Castle starts poking at the insides of a ripped open computer Beckett reminds him, "Don't touch too much. I'll have CSU go over everything and see if they can make sense of this mess."

With his nose almost inside the wrecked computer he responds, "Looks like the hard drive has been removed. Someone must have wanted what was on that drive. Oooh!" and his head snaps up.

Thinking that he's found something important she goes over to him asking, "What is it?"

"I see it now. Our victim isn't an international terrorist but a computer hacker working for one of those whistle blower websites like Wiki Leaks. The shadowy government agency that had him under surveillance and then killed have spirited away whatever secrets he was about to release to the world."

Beckett shakes her head, surprised at herself that after all these years she can still be sucked in by him. How could she ever of thought that their life together would be boring. Before she could let him know exactly what she thought of the latest iteration of his flight of fancy there came the sound of movement from behind one of the closed doors leading from the living room. Drawing her gun Beckett motions Castle to the side of the door so that he can open it while she has it covered.

"NYPD! We know you are in there. Come out slowly!" she commands.

This causes more, even louder noises from behind the door and at the nod from Beckett, Castle opens the door. She clears the doorway then rushes into the room, gun searching for targets. As she enters what is a similarly trashed bedroom she spots a figure disappearing out the window.

"Stop! Castle, the fire escape!"

She races to follow. Still with her gun drawn she takes a quick look out the window, so she isn't exposed too long to possible hostile fire. She sees the figure, who she can now see looks like a man in a black hoodie, scrambling down the fire escape as fast as he can.

"Stop, Police!" she yells as she holsters her gun and follows the suspect out the window and down the fire escape. 'They never stop!' she thinks to herself.

As fast as she is the suspect has a head start on her and is almost at the bottom. He jumps the last few feet from the ladder at the end. Just as he is about to start running the side door of the building bursts open and out flies Castle, tackling the suspect. They proceed to wrestle on the ground with Castle exclaiming, "Not so fast….I've…got…you…"

Unfortunately his words are overly optimistic as the suspect struggles free of his grasp. But before he can make a run for it he is confronted with the sight of a pair of black, high heeled boots and blue jean clad legs landing in front of him. He looks up, straight into the barrel of Beckett's 9mm as she asks almost casually, "Going somewhere?"

From the ground behind the suspect Castle gives Beckett a double thumbs up for delivering such a badass line.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: So another, even shorter chapter. I wanted to give a personal dimension to the case for Beckett and Castle so came up with this AU bit of memory for Beckett. We'll get to Castle's later._

_Disclaimer : Again Castle is the property of Mr Marlowe, ABC and the other writers of this intriguing show. The characters are just so good I like to have a go at playing with them._

* * *

The elevator doors to the 12th precinct open and Beckett and Castle push out the handcuffed suspect that they had caught at the victim's apartment. Beckett signals to a nearby uniformed officer, "LT, take this guy to holding for us will you."

Ryan and Esposito approach them from down the corridor as the suspect is led away.

"Who's that guy?" asks Ryan

"He rabbited from the vic's apartment after we got there. Driver's licence says he's a Paul Sorizo with an address in Brooklyn. I was going to run down some more info on him before I put him in the box. Any luck with the photographer, Ferry?" asks Beckett as she walks to her desk and takes her seat and Castle takes his next to it.

"I don't know about luck. I just know that I feel like I need a shower after talking to that guy," responds Ryan.

Esposito continues, "Guy's a real slime bag. When we got to his studio he kept us talking at the front door. Said he hadn't seen Carmody since their dust up and hadn't met him before that day. At the time of death he said he was finishing up taking photos at a modelling agency's party on the other side of town. But something wasn't right about the way he tried to block our view into his studio."

Ryan takes up the story, "So I did the old line and asked if I could use the restroom and we were able to get past him. Inside we found a girl, semi clothed, lying on a couch in front of a camera and a bunch of lights and she did not look happy. When she saw our badges she immediately asked for our help. That caused Ferry to try to leave but we collared him."

"The girl was only 16 years old and she told us that she'd been lured there by Ferry with the promise of taking shots for a high end clothing line. Once there he started putting pressure on her to make the photos more revealing," added Esposito with disgust.

Beckett's eyes flash in anger at this and Castle notices her knuckles go white as she balls her fists on the desk in front of her. "Tell me you got her out of there and brought that guy in," growls Beckett.

"Oh Yeah, she's in the break room waiting for her parents after giving her statement to Velasquez and we've got him sweating in interrogation," replies Ryan. Seeing Beckett's reaction he asks, "Did you want to take a run at him?" Handing her a file.

"Yes I do," she responds in a voice that will brook no argument. "While I do that could you get me the background on Sorizo and start looking into Carmody's phone calls and financials? See if we can start a timeline on where he was before the murder."

"No problem," says Esposito as he and Ryan turn and walk to their respective desks to start their research.

Beckett is still sitting at her desk, looking into the distance, remembering something and from her balled fists, her eyes and their own instinctive connection Castle could tell it wasn't a pleasant something. He reaches over and places his hand over one of her fists to try and reassure her.

"Hey, what is it?" he asks with a sympathetic whisper.

She looks at him and the genuine concern on his face cools her heat a little allowing her to open up, "What that girl went through just reminded me of something that happened to me when I wasn't much older than her."

Castle's concern shoots up another level, "What happened?"

She releases a long breath and continues, "When I was trying out modelling work for catalogues in college, before my mom died, I got myself into a similar situation. The photographer that took the photos for the catalogue that you've already seen….."

"Seen, that image of you all smiles in that tennis outfit will be with me until we are both old and grey and solving murders from wheel chairs," interrupts Castle, trying to lighten her mood.

He succeeds slightly bringing the twitch of a smile to the corner of her mouth, "I still can't believe the boys showed you that photo after I told them not to. Anyway, during our second session he started suggesting that I reveal more and more and make my poses more provocative. He just kept at me saying "Come on, everyone does it, don't you want to get ahead?" And the look in his eyes. I could tell he was getting off on the idea. He started getting closer and closer, imposing his bulk on me. It was the most threatened I'd ever felt up to then."

"What did you do?"

"I froze at first. I couldn't believe it was happening. But then I got angry and he got a bit too close. That's when I kicked him."

"Tell me it was…..."

"Yep, right in the package. As he was writhing on the ground I got my stuff and got out of there as fast as I could."

"If I'd been there I think I would of done more than just kicking him in the package," commented Castle with his own look of anger in his eyes.

"When my mom and dad heard what happened, well you can imagine what two lawyers might do. Let's just say that the guy found it very difficult to get work with decent magazines ever again. With that, my run in with Matilda King and my mother's murder not soon after it put me off the idea of doing any more modelling. That case we did with that murdered model a couple of years ago brought up some of this and then Matilda King but this situation is so much closer to what I experienced that all those feelings are just boiling to the surface. It's another thing about being a woman and a cop. I never want to feel that vulnerable again."

As her story had continued she'd gradually relaxed her hands until they were no longer in fists. By the end the hand Castle was holding had turned and they now just held hands with Castle giving her that familiar circular motion with his thumb on the back of hers. She looks down at them and smiles at the memory of when they first did that. Then what it meant later when they were trying to keep their relationship secret. Now it was his silent way of showing his love and support. Looking up into those blue eyes of his she sees those same emotions, draws on them and says, "OK, let's see what this…..guy has to say for himself."


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N : Thanks again to those following this story. I hope you enjoy it. I enjoyed writing it. _

_Disclaimer : Castle is owned by Marlowe, ABC and the Castle writers room. I just like this universe so much that my imagination comes up with stuff to do with their creations._

* * *

Beckett and Castle enter the interrogation room and get their first look at Ferry. They see a white guy in his early thirties, black spiked up hair with obvious designer stubble on his chin and wearing a black leather jacket over a dark blue t-shirt. He's lounging in his chair and on seeing Beckett his eyes light up.

"Ooh, baby! If you ever want a professional to give you some real glamour shots just let me know. You are sizzlin' hot. I'd be sure to give you a 'special rate'," he finishes with a leer.

Beckett slaps the file folder she is carrying on the table between them and sits down. As she takes her seat she pushes the table so that it rams into Ferry's stomach causing him to sit up straight. Castle takes the seat next to her and glares at Ferry, his estimation of Ferry as low as he'd expected after that introduction. Beckett takes a few seconds and just looks at Ferry in the eye with an expression of pure disdain. After a few moments Ferry starts squirming in his seat, uncomfortable with the silence and the stare that Beckett is giving him. He sidles his glance to Castle but only sees a look of anger and equal disdain there. Ferry's discomfort increases as the silence continues and from the looks he's getting from across the table that telegraph the opinion of those opposite.

"So you like taking photos of little girls do you Ferry?" asks Beckett in a clear, measured, not to be F'ed with tone.

"Your mother must be so proud," adds Castle.

"Hey, nobody twisted anybody's arm. She didn't say anything about her age and asked me to take photos for her portfolio. She wants to be a model," responds Ferry with a shrug of his shoulders.

Beckett opens the file in front of her to take a quick read of the top page and counters, "According to Tracy, her name was Tracy by the way, she met you out the front of an audition call for the Jackson agency, one the biggest modelling agencies in Manhattan. She said that you told her that you were a photographer for New York Fashion magazine."

"Yeah, she's a real talent. I know how to pick 'em. With my shots she would light up the mags," replies Ferry trying to justify himself.

"Except New York Fashion don't have you listed as being on staff. The only contact you've ever had with them was as a freelance over two years ago. In fact, according to their head photographer, you were black balled from ever working for them for selling inappropriate pictures from their shoots to the highest bidder," counters Beckett with ever growing contempt in her voice.

Ferry continues to try and put a positive spin on the situation but is failing in the face of the derisive looks from the couple opposite, "Well, I can still do great shots for her. It's not a crime if she got the wrong impression."

"Ah, actually it is. It's called fraudulent misrepresentation," counters Castle.

Beckett stands up, moves around the table to stand over Ferry, invading his personal space, and in a menacing tone, "Face it Ferry, we've got you on taking and owning inappropriate images of a minor. Believe you me guys who take shots of little girls have a very special place in prison."

"I believe it's a standing reservation in the prison infirmary, except you won't be standing" adds Castle.

Sweat starts running down Ferry's brow and he looks side to side desperately. Anything but look into the eyes of Beckett towering over him. When not dealing with young, naive women he's totally out of his class and he's on the defensive here. "Look, you know these girls, they come to the city. They want their big break. It's not my fault that they're not ready for what goes on in this world."

Beckett suddenly moves forward even further and leans down, pushing her face straight into Ferry, causing him to cringe down and away from her.

"I'm so glad you're here to help educate them," hisses Beckett sarcastically. She then pulls away and walks over the wall and leans casually against it. In a much calmer voice she continues, "Then there's Sam Carmody."

"What happened Ferry, he found out about how you help young women new to town and made too much noise so you killed him?" asks Castle.

Thoroughly intimidated Ferry stammers, "Now, Now, Now, I've got nothing to do with that. As I told those other cops. The first and last time I saw that kid was when he turned up at my studio six months ago."

"So where were you last night between 2 and 3 am? And don't tell me you were taking photos at an agency party. You wouldn't be able to get past the door of a big agency party," scoffs Beckett.

"Yeah, no I got all mixed up on that. Last night I was at the Foxy, the strip club on 33rd, right up to dawn. Ask around, I'm a regular."

"We'll be sure to. So why did Carmody get in that fight with you six months ago?" asks Beckett.

"He came banging on my door, yelling about his sister."

"His sister?" asks Castle sharing a look with Beckett.

"Yeah, he was waving one of my special offer flyers," after the quizzical look from Beckett he continues, "Sometimes when I hear of one of the big open auditions I go along and hand out flyers giving a special offer on portfolio shots. It's a great way of getting some bites. That kid had one of them, said he'd found it in his sister's stuff and said that I had to know where she was."

"So he didn't know where his sister was and thought you might?" asked Castle with a nagging thought that he was getting to the heart of this.

"I suppose, I just know that he tried pushing his way into my place and I had some…err…business going on inside," he glances nervously over at Beckett as she gets off the wall at that, "so I pushed back and we got into it."

Castle turns in his chair to look directly at Beckett, "Our victim was looking for his missing sister!"

* * *

_A/N : __The first interrogation scene and I must admit I found them the most difficult to write but it wouldn't be Castle without them. _


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N : Thanks again to everyone that has reviewed, followed or made it their favourite. It's good to know that people are enjoying this. Still a long way to go so stick with me. Also, excuse me if I've got some of the areas and geography of New York wrong. Not living there and not having visited there yet I'm relying on maps._

_Disclaimer : Castle is the property of Andrew Marlowe, ABC, all the talented writers of the show and not me. Having a go at steering these characters for a while is my idea of fun._

* * *

Castle, doing some research himself, hangs up the phone on the desk behind Beckett, turns in his swivel chair to face her and says, "So Ferry alibis out. That was the manager of the Foxy. He confirms that Ferry was there from just after 10 until dawn. He's got security camera footage showing him coming and going. He's emailing it over to you and all I had to say was that I worked with the NYPD and he was more than helpful."

Beckett, sitting at her desk studying the information on the monitor in front of her, responds, "Probably worried about his liquor license." She's annoyed that it looked like Ferry wasn't the murderer but she was going to take some consolation that she was getting him off the streets and away from young women with the charges over the photos. As she feels Castle move closer behind her she starts reading out the information on the monitor in front of her, "So the missing person's report says nine months ago a Julie Carmody, twenty years old, was reported missing by her brother, Sam."

Castle gently brushes aside the long brown hair at one side of her face and places his chin on her shoulder, their cheeks touching, to look at the screen. She glances at him and with a smile continues, "According to her brother she came to New York a year ago with a friend to try her luck at becoming a model. After two months the friend gave up and went home. Sam was at college at Cal Tech studying computer engineering at the time and stayed in regular contact with Julie. Nine months ago he lost contact and reported her missing. Detectives from the 18th investigated but there wasn't any sign of foul play at her place. In fact it looked like she'd packed a bag and gone somewhere but there was no record of where. After that the case became just another one of the hundreds of unsolved missing person's cases in the city each year."

"Mr Castle!" says Captain Gates sternly as she passes by the pair of them.

"Sorry," replies Castle as he lifts his head from Beckett's shoulder and moves next to her so that he can still see the monitor.

Beckett, slightly embarrassed at being caught in an overt display of affection in the precinct, continues, "Sam turned up at the 18th a couple of weeks later and demanded they continue investigating. With no new evidence all they could do was give him want info they had and send him on his way."

"So Sam, determined to find out what had happened to his sister, drops out of school and moves to New York to try and find her. What about their parents?" asks Castle.

"Both died in a light plane crash two years ago back near their home town in Arizona. Left the two of them insurance money which is how Julie could afford to follow her dream to come to New York to become a model."

Esposito and Ryan join them, hand a file to Beckett and Esposito says, "Got the info on Sorizo. He's a college dropout from California, moved here about a year and a half ago. No job from what we can find and he's on the Fed's radar."

"What for?" asks Beckett, her interest piqued.

"Computer hacking! He's suspected in hacking several government and private company websites. No evidence to prosecute him but they have him on a watch list," supplies Ryan.

"Let me guess, he dropped out of Cal Tech where he was studying computer engineering with our victim?" asks Castle.

"Yeah, he dropped out of Cal Tech and while we can't tell if he knew Carmody there we know he knew him here," adds Esposito.

"How?" asks Beckett

"Carmody's financials. According to them our vic made two payments of five grand each to him during the last six months," replies Esposito.

Castle starts spinning his theory, "Add to that the tracking device that Lanie found in our victim and it looks like that our vic was running the whistle blower website and was paying his hacker class mate to do the hacking that was getting him tracked by the shadowy government agency."

"So where does the missing sister fit in?" asks Beckett.

"Maybe she'd been involved in some big government conspiracy, was disappeared, they found evidence of it and he was about to release it to the world which is why he was killed," continues Castle undaunted.

"Or there is a perfectly reasonable explanation why our vic paid him the money that has nothing to do with a whistle blower website," counters Beckett. "Anyway we'll find out when we talk to him. What about that supposed tracking device, did CSU find anything and was Carmody on the Fed's radar as well?"

Ryan looks at a file he is carrying, "CSU thinks it could be a tracking device but it could be something else, they can't be one hundred percent either way. It's homemade with the components available over the counter from any electronics store. FBI and Homeland don't have any record of having any interest in Carmody let alone tracking him like this."

"As the homemade nature of the device would indicate," says Beckett with a look at Castle to put that particular theory to rest. "And what about the SD card and the bullet Lanie pulled?"

"They can't access the info on the SD card. It's got some pretty sophisticated encryption software protecting it. The techs suspect that it's designed so that the card can only work on specific computers that have the right decryption key preinstalled," answers Esposito. "As for the bullet, nothing in the system on the gun that fired it other than it could have come from any number models of 9mm hand guns.

"So with the computers at his home smashed and anything of help that he might have been carrying taken by the killer we have no way of finding out what Carmody was trying to hide. What about a timeline for before the murder? Any idea where Carmody was?" asks Castle, not concerned at all that his latest theory was looking less and less plausible. He was used to it. He usually got the right theory in the end.

"He left the computer shop where he works part time at 6pm. His Metro card records have him taking a train to the 145th street station in Hamilton Heights arriving at 6:30pm and then nothing. Nothing to indicate how he gets to from there to where he is crushed at 2:15am," Ryan informs him.

While Ryan had been talking, Beckett had gotten up and started writing the information on the murder board, ending with the scant information of the timeline. Standing back and studying the board she says, "Espo, go and kick Ferry to vice, they can have the dubious honour of charging him and then get Sorizo and put him in interrogation for me. Ryan, get some unis from the local precinct to do a canvas around Hamilton Heights, see if they can trace Carmody's movements. Oh and chase up Tori on the registration of that van."

As Esposito and Ryan depart Castle gets up and joins Beckett at the board and in a puzzled tone asks, "What was Carmody doing in Hamilton Heights for all that time?"

"And what do his missing sister, an RF chip and an encrypted SD card have to do with it all?" asks Beckett in an equally puzzled tone.

* * *

_A/N : After watching that funny video of Stana, Jon and Seamus doing the ice bucket challenge today plus the one of when Nathan did it I just have to say I'll be donating to The Ice Bucket Challenge #KissMyALS_


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N : Thanks very much to those reviewing. I'm glad that people are liking the start of this and that I'm succeeding in my goal of writing a story like an episode. Off on a trip on the weekend and I'm not sure of the Wi-Fi where I'll be staying so I'll put out two chapters each day over the next couple of days to make up for the possible gap._

_Disclaimer : Marlowe, ABC and the other writers of Castle own the show and characters. I just appreciate their work so much that I wanted to try and emulate them._

* * *

For the second time that morning Beckett and Castle enter the interrogation room to the sight of a suspect seated at the table waiting for them. Sorizo is a young, pale faced man with short brown hair plastered greasily on his head, still wearing the black hoddie he'd been caught in and looking uncomfortable in the brightly lit room.

"Paul Sorizo, twenty-four years old and college dropout from Cal Tech," reels off Beckett as she and Castle take their seats at the table opposite Sorizo. "So Paul, what were you doing at Sam Carmody's apartment?"

Sorizo nervously responds, "Sam was going to give me some money and we'd arranged to meet at his place."

"So when he wasn't there you broke in and tore the place apart looking for it?" asks Castle.

"No way. The door was open and the place was wrecked when I got there," replies Sorizo holding up his hands pleadingly.

"So why did you run when we arrived?" presses Beckett.

Sorizo looks to the side to side as if looking for a way to escape, "Look, I panicked OK! I hear cops and the place is trashed and I'm standing in the middle of it. I know how it looks so I had to get out of there."

Beckett gives her own spin on Sorizo's story, "Or after killing Sam this morning and not finding any money on him you went to his place to find it using his own key to get in."

"Wait, what, Sam's dead?" asks a shocked Sorizo.

"Shot and then crushed behind a dumpster two blocks from his apartment between 2 and 3 this morning. Where were you then Paul?" asks Beckett.

"I pulled an all-nighter playing Alpha Squad on-line. You can check my game account log."

"Except all that will show was that someone was using your screen name during that time, not necessarily you," discounts Castle with his own, first hand, knowledge of all night on-line gaming.

"Look, I had no reason to kill Sam. He's a college buddy. We were helping each other out," pleads Sorizo.

"Was that helping him looking for his sister Julie?" inquires Beckett as she opens the file in front of her, takes out a photo of a blond haired, striking looking young woman and places it in front of him.

Sorizo reaches out, takes the photo and studies the image, "Yeah, nine months ago he turned up in town and told me his sister had disappeared and needed my help. I'd moved out here a while ago so as I knew the city better he thought that I'd be able to help him."

"If he was such a good buddy, why then the two payments of five thousand dollars each during the last six months? Was that payment for some of your, let's say, less than legal computing skills?" asks Castle.

"We know you're on the FBI watch list for known hackers Paul," adds Beckett.

"Ok, Sam thought that there was info about his sister on some modelling agency websites and needed me to get into them for him. It's not like I was stealing bank account details. It was only some contact info and shooting schedules."

"Ten grand over six months seems a bit steep for that, especially for a guy working part time in a computer store. Plus, Sam was a Cal Tech computing student like you. Why couldn't he do that himself?" asks Castle with a look of incredulity.

"Sam was more into hardware and programing and you need some specific skills to get into sites unnoticed. The money was for some hardware purchases I needed at first and then as Sam learnt that I was having it rough out here he gave me the money to help me out. He still had some of his parent's life insurance money and he didn't mind sharing."

"Generous of him," returns Castle.

"Yeah well, Sam was like that plus he'd do anything to find out what happened to Julie," shrugged Sorizo.

"So did the info you obtain help? Did Sam have an idea of who might have taken his sister?" asks Beckett.

"He thought that some sleaze bag photographer might have had something to do with it."

"Michael Ferry?" suggests Castle.

"Yeah that's the guy. Sam found one of his flyers in Julie's stuff and he wanted some more proof that he knew Julie," responds Sorizo eagerly.

"We've spoken to him already. Besides the flyer did you find anything that linked Ferry to Julie's disappearance?" inquires Beckett.

"I don't know. Sam just asked me to get the info, he was the one putting it all together. He had it all on the computers at his place."

"Which had their hard drives taken when his place was trashed. Who would have done that Paul? Ferry?" persists Beckett.

"Yeah, sure. All I know was Sam was convinced that Julie's disappearance had something to do with her trying to become a model and that he thought that Ferry or someone else in that world had something to do with it."

"Someone else in that world, like who?" inquires Castle curiously cocking his head.

"I don't know, Sam said that Julie did get a few small jobs with the Martel agency before she disappeared and maybe they knew something. They were one of the agencies sites he had me, uh, access," responds Sorizo desperately as he realises that vague answers aren't helping him.

"We'll want a list of all the sites you _accessed_ Paul," instructs Beckett with a look. Sorizo nods his assent at that.

Beckett takes another photo from the file, this one a blow-up of the tracking device taken from Sam's arm and asks, "What about this? Do you know what this is?"

A look of surprise and curiosity crosses Sorizo's face, "No idea. As I said, Sam was the hardware guy. Where did you find that?"

"Sorry Paul, you're here to answer questions, not us," rebukes Beckett.

"Before his death Sam spent about seven hours in the Hamilton Heights area. Any idea what he was doing there?" asks Castle quickly to keep Sorizo talking.

Sorizo looks surprised again at this question, "No idea. I hadn't seen Sam for about a couple of weeks and when I did I just spoke to him over the phone. I hated to ask but I need some more cash. He said he could let me have some more but it would take a week to get it together which was why I was at his place. Believe me, I had nothing to do with his death or know anything else about what happened to Julie," insists Sorizo looking back and forth between Beckett and Castle.


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N : Here is the second chapter today and so after a standard last chapter here is a little fun because Castle is fun._

_Disclaimer : The characters and universe of Castle belongs to Andrew Marlowe, ABC and the Castle writers. This is my attempt at filling the gap between seasons._

* * *

As Beckett and Castle leave the interrogation room Beckett comments, "Well that didn't give us much!"

She looks at Castle who has that far away curious look on his face she knows well. It wasn't the look he got when he was going to spin one of his wild theories but the one when there was something in the case had pinged his instinct and was leading to a new and usually productive revelation.

"What?" she asks curiously.

Castle opens his mouth to respond but before he can utter a syllable they are interrupted by a voice behind them.

"Well that was SO interesting, I wish I could bring my students to watch that," says the unmistakeable voice of Castle's mother, Martha.

Beckett and Castle both turn around in surprise to see Martha, dressed in one of her flamboyantly coloured blouses, exit the observation room next to the interrogation room. Behind her, Esposito follows her out of the room, stops, folds his arms and leans against the doorway with a smug look of amusement on his face.

"Mother! You're here! At the Precinct!" exclaims Castle a feeling of dread coming over him at what her presence at the precinct could mean. As Martha walks up to Beckett and Castle, linking an arm with each of them and starts leading them towards Beckett's desk, Castle looks over his shoulder at the grinning Esposito and mouths, "I get you for this". Esposito, smiling even more, holds his hands up in mock protest and follows them so as not to miss the show.

"Yes Richard, of course I'm here," responds Martha with the condescending tone of a mother talking to her dim-witted child.

Beckett, just as equally put off balance by Martha's appearance, closes her eyes and shakes her head before looking at her and stammering, "Uhh..Wh..What are you doing here Martha?"

"Well my dear, I'm here to follow up the offer I made this morning. For you to talk to my class about your interrogations. I could tell you needed some convincing and I knew Richard here would try to talk you out of it," responds Martha, backhanding Castle in the chest. "Believe me Katherine it would mean so much if you could do this. I can't see how it couldn't be anything but a positive experience for everyone and it would make us so much closer. I also thought it would be a good idea for me to see you in action. As luck would have it, when I got here Javier told me you were already in an interrogation and kindly showed me into the viewing room to watch."

They had reached Beckett's desk and Martha releases them both and goes over to look at pictures and the information displayed on the murder board.

"But Mother, surely this could wait? We're in the middle of an investigation!" protests Castle. After all these years it was so rare for his mother to be at the precinct and when she was it was usually an emergency or, in those early days, to bail him out. This is the first time she'd just dropped by and he was feeling his territory invaded slightly.

Martha turns to face him, "Oh pish Richard, I'm not going to interfere. I just wanted to see Katherine's process first hand. I can't just trust your rose coloured observations."

Ryan, who had seen that something good was happening from his desk and didn't want to miss it, rushed over to join them. He stands next to Esposito who is perched on the edge of the desk next to Beckett's. He decides to stoke the fire by enquiring, "What observations?"

Beckett gives her own "DON'T!" look to Ryan as Martha replies, "Oh Richard, goes on about how she's so self-assured, intelligent and cunning in interrogations. How fierce she can be. That she has a sixth sense on just the right attitude to take with a suspect to get them to talk. He says that she's by far and away the best interrogator in the precinct if not the whole NYPD."

Beckett blushes slightly and looks down at this praise while Ryan and Esposito both give Castle a look.

"Oh, Really!" responds Ryan his tone conveying his amusement at Beckett's discomfort and also to Castle as if to say "What are we, chopped liver?"

"Yeah, very interesting," adds Esposito in an identical tone.

Castle seeing this heading down a road that would lead nowhere good tries to respond, "Um mother, what I meant to say was…," but at the look he now gets from Beckett which says "So you didn't mean that?" stops and closes his eyes in frustration at being caught out like this.

Seeing the normally gregarious and confident Castle so easily tied in knots has Ryan and Esposito do a fist bump in triumph. Beckett, to stop it all before the boys have enough ammunition to make their life hell for the next month, makes a rash decision, "OK Martha, I'll talk to your class."

"Oh Katherine, thankyou. It will be wonderful. Now that I've seen you at work first hand I can add my own observations to the discussion. Everyone will get so much out of it," responds Martha smiling wide at Beckett's acceptance.

Castle, trying to salvage some control quickly adds the caveat, "Depending on the case of course. She might not have the time if the investigation is still ongoing."

"We can wait. The class isn't going anywhere. We can fit in to whatever time Katherine has available. Well, now that's settled I must go, I'm going over to Colombia to have lunch with Alexis. See you all later," and with a wave of a hand she sweeps out of the bullpen and to the conveniently waiting elevator.

Once the elevator doors are closed and he is sure she can't hear Castle turns on the grinning boys, "Thanks for your help guys. I thought we were bros?"

Esposito counters in satisfaction, "Hey man if you think we're going to miss an opportunity to put you two love birds on the spot you're sadly mistaken. Watching you two making gooey eyes at each other has gone off the chart since you got engaged. It's embarrassing. It's even worse than how whipped Ryan is with Jenny."

"Dude!" exclaims Ryan.

"Sorry Bro, but we've told you how whipped you are," responds Esposito matter-of-factly.

Beckett, knowing she's probably made a mistake agreeing so readily to Martha and wanting someone to take it out on, advances menacingly on the two boys, "If you think I'm going to forget this you're the ones that are sadly mistaken. And Espo, you're one to talk about whipped, if Lanie walked in here and crooked her little finger you'd be out the door quicker than it takes Ryan to answer a text from Jenny."

"And if either of you think you're getting a loan of the Ferrari any time soon you can forget it," adds Castle for good measure.

Beckett sees movement out of the corner of her eye and looks over at Captain Gate's office. All the banter had obviously attracted Gate's attention because Beckett could see the oft seen look of disapproval over her reading glasses on her face directed at the group in the bullpen. She stands up straight, folds her arms across her chest and in her best business like tone, "Ah, so any word on the video of the van. Was Tori able to identify anyone driving or the plate?"

Seeing Beckett's glance towards Gate's office Ryan and Esposito take the hint and they both move to their desks to reference the files there.

"According to Tori the angle and quality weren't right to see anyone inside but she was able to get the registration. It's a Massachusetts plate registered to a Joe's Plumbing in Fitchburg. It's not reported lost or stolen. I've got a call into the Fitchburg PD to check it out," responds Esposito.

"Massachusetts? How is a plumber's van from Massachusetts involved in this?" asks Castle, joining them.

"Hopefully the Fitchburg PD can find that out for us. Have CSU got anything from Carmody's apartment yet?" asks Beckett.

"They've been able to go through most of the apartment and they've found a few interesting things," replies Ryan holding up a file which Castle takes and starts perusing. "As you saw there was quite a bit of pretty expensive computer hardware and all the hard drives were removed. In fact there was nothing there that held any data, no discs, no flash drives, nothing. On top of that they found a wireless webcam hidden in the ceiling overlooking the front door. Techs think it was linked to the computers in the apartment but without the drives there's no way to know what it saw."

"And I bet it recorded who searched his place," declares Beckett frustrated.

"No bet here," responds Castle his concentration on the file in front of him, "What's this about them finding a key?"

Ryan holds up an evidence bag with a key in it which Beckett takes to examine, "CSU found that hidden in a false brick in the wall of the clothes cupboard in the bedroom. Looks like we were lucky that whoever searched the place didn't find it. It's only got our vic's prints on it."

"Any idea what it's for?" asks Beckett.

"I think so. I went back to Carmody's financials to see if I could find out why he was in Hamilton Heights. I found regular funds transfers to a property rental agency. These were in addition to the payments he made for the rent on the apartment where he lived. I contacted the agency and they gave me an address for an old garage in, guess where?" asks Ryan.

"Hamilton Heights!" replies Castle.

Ryan holds up a post-it with a smile and a nod and Beckett grabs it, "OK, Castle and I will go and check out this place, see if the key matches. Espo, take Sorizo to booking for me and have him charged with obstruction so that we can hold onto him for a bit more and see if he comes up with anything else. Plus his alibi is too weak. Ryan, Sorizo mentioned that Carmody's sister did some work for the Martel agency, can you check that out and with the other modelling agencies whose sites he hacked?"

"Ah, wouldn't you prefer me to make enquiries with a bunch of modelling agencies? I could go down there and conduct some personal interviews," asks Esposito perking up at the possibility of getting to hang around some models.

Beckett gives him one of her patent looks that immediately squashes his hopes, "No Espo, after your recent performance I think I'd prefer a _married_ man dealing with those agencies," Beckett pauses remembering, "Castle, you were going to say something after the interview with Sorizo?"

Castle gets a thoughtful and frustrated look on his face, "I'm not sure. My mother turning up has thrown me out of alignment. I can't remember what, just that something in there didn't seem right."

"You'll get it. Come on let's see if this key is for that garage," says Beckett reassuringly as she moves to her desk for her jacket and keys.


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N : Here is the first of two chapters today. The second will be uploaded a little later today. I hope you all enjoy._

_Disclaimer : Andrew Marlowe, ABC and some talented writers own Castle. I just appreciate the characters they've created so much that I can think of so many more things to do with them._

* * *

"So what was with Martha turning up at the precinct like that?" asks Beckett of Castle as they walk down the street from where they'd just parked her car.

They are walking down a street that is filled with old store fronts, small warehouses and light industrial buildings. Hard economic times have hit the area, with many showing _For Sale_ or _To Let_ in their empty windows. It is a cold, crisp, clear New York winter's day and their breath forms brief clouds in front of them as they speak.

"I can only think our getting engaged has affected her more than I thought possible," surmised Castle.

Beckett consulted the post-it that she'd gotten from Ryan and looked at the number on the nearest building as she continued, "But we've been together for almost two years and engaged for almost one, why now?"

"There it is," said Castle indicating to a rundown looking building with a large roller door for an entrance two doors further down, "Maybe as our marriage has been getting closer and we've been getting caught up in the preparations it has made it more real for her. What we have isn't anything like what I had with Meredith or Gina. The life we have together, working together is something that she's never been able to really share. Perhaps she feels she needs to be more involved so she can be closer to us both."

"Well I think we need to find her something to do for the wedding to keep her occupied. If she keeps turning up at the precinct we'll never hear the end of it from the boys," concludes Beckett as they arrive at the roller door at the front of the address on Ryan's post-it.

Set into the door is a smaller door allowing entry without raising the whole thing. Beckett takes out the evidence bag holding the key, tears open the seal, takes out the key and tries it in the lock of the smaller door. She looks at Castle as there is a click and the door opens from the push of her hand.

"Looks like this is the place," observes Castle.

Seeing that it is dark inside, Beckett takes her torch from the pocket of her overcoat, turns it on and steps inside. Castle, having long ago learnt to come prepared, similarly pulls out his own torch and follows her inside.

The beams of their torches slice through the dust laden air inside the building. The rectangle of light cast from the doorway helps to lift some but not all of the gloom. Gradually their eyes become accustomed to the darkness and they can make out a large open area with an empty car lift in its centre. At the back of what was the mechanic's bay they see an office with wooden walls and frosted glass windows.

"What's that?" asks Castle as they both spot a faint blue glow coming through the frosted glass of the office.

They both head to the door of the office. Beckett opens it and they enter. Inside, on a desk against the far wall, they see bright, flashing blue LED lights on an array of computer equipment. They both advance on the table, the beams of their torches playing over the black boxes of the equipment there.

"Are we sure there isn't some massive conspiracy involving secret servers of a whistle blower website?" asks Castle.

Beckett leans down to examine the equipment more closely, "I won't say it's impossible. At the very least maybe this stuff will have the information on Carmody's investigation into his sister's disappearance and help indicate who might have killed him."

Castle plays his torch over the rest of the room and then the cords leading into the wall from the back of the black boxes, "I think you're right. Looks like it's all connected to a phone line. They might have been linked to the equipment at Carmody's apartment. We might even be able to use it to read the info on the SD card." His light stops on a pile of wires and transistors next to a soldering iron on a bench on the other side of the room. He walks over to the bench for a closer look, "I think Sam made that tracking device himself. All the equipment and parts are right here."

"Let's get CSU down here to collect this stuff and take it back to the precinct," says Beckett as she turns away to head back out of the office while taking out her cell phone and scrolling through the contacts. Hitting the call button for the precinct she has the phone to her ear as she and Castle reach the doorway to the office. They both stop in their tracks as they are confronted with the sight of the silhouettes of two men standing in the light thrown by the open front door.

"Down!" yells Beckett as the sub machine guns the silhouettes are holding start spitting fire.

Beckett and Castle dive to the ground, taking cover on either side of the doorway. The glass of the windows above them shatter under the fire showering them both in glass. Beckett, her gun drawn, rolls so that she can poke her head around the bottom of the doorway and returns fire with three quick shots making the silhouettes dive for cover themselves. Beckett ducks back into cover as more fire comes through the doorway, bullet strikes sparking on the concrete floor.

"Castle! Are you OK?" yells Beckett desperately.

"Yes I'm OK, for now. You?" asks an equally desperate Castle.

"Yeah I'm good," replies Beckett as she looks around for her cell phone, which she'd dropped when taking cover. She spots it in the doorway, destroyed by gunfire. "Damm, my phone's smashed. Can you call for back-up?"

"Already on it," responds Castle.

More bullets smash into the wood and glass around them. Beckett pops up briefly and loses off some shots in the direction of the incoming fire. Meanwhile Castle fumbles as he pulls his phone from his jacket pocket. He eventually is able to make the call for help.

"Esposito! Beckett and I are taking fire at the garage, send help, send help now!" yells Castle down the phone. "Ok, Ok, look there's two shooters, they have automatic weapons and have us trapped in the back of the building. Right, thanks," Castle cringes as more bullet strikes finish shattering the last of the glass above him as he looks over at Beckett. "They're on their way."

More shots pepper the wooden walls of the office sheltering them. Castle gasps in frustration, "Trapped and I don't even have a champagne bottle to distract them."

Beckett stretches to reach down her leg to her ankle holster and pulls out her back-up gun. "Castle, here!" she whispers as she places it on the ground and slides in along the ground to Castle.

Castle snags the gun, picks it up, flips off the safety and pulls back the slide to cock it. He looks over at Beckett with a nod.

Beckett takes a deep breath, fighting to control and use the adrenalin surging through her system. She raises her voice to be heard by the shooters outside, "NYPD! Back-up is on its way. This place will be crawling with cops any minute. Give up now!"

She is answered with curses in a language that she can't identify but sounds familiar to her multi-lingual ear. Then there are sounds that she surmises are of empty clips being discarded and new ones being slotted into place. Taking the opportunity her and Castle both lean around the edge of the doorway and loose off shots at the sounds. They both barely duck back in time as their fire is answered by more from the automatic weapons.

This exchange of fire continues for several minutes with neither side able to gain an advantage or hit their targets. Beckett has already been forced to reload her weapon from one of the clips on her belt and had slid the other to Castle when he similarly ran out of ammunition. They were both now on their last few shots and it didn't look like they were getting out of this anytime soon.

More shots hammer into their cover, some piercing the wood of the walls they are hiding behind dangerously close to the both of them. Between the bursts of fire they hear footsteps getting closer to where they are both crouching. After a long burst of fire Beckett looks over at Castle and mouths, "One, Two, Three!"

On three they both pop up and through the broken windows above them, firing rapidly at the vague shapes of the shooters that they could just make out in front of them. They hear a groan and a clatter of a gun being dropped. Next they hear the sound of sirens growing in volume indicating their help is almost there. There is a momentary glimpse of the shape of a man disappearing out through the front door. Soon after there is the sound of a slamming door followed by a vehicle speeding away.

Slowly, Beckett, followed by Castle, guns still raised, come out from behind their cover and move into the area in front of the now bullet ridden office. As they move further into the room the sounds of sirens reach their apex followed by the screeching of tyres. Soon multiple uniformed officers, guns drawn, shouting, "NYPD!" come storming through the light of the open front door into the gun smoke filled garage. Moments behind the uniforms there are shouts of, "Beckett?" and "Castle?" as Ryan and Esposito rush into the garage their guns searching for danger.

"Here guys. We're OK!" assures Beckett as everyone lowers their weapons and she holds up her badge to identify herself to the uniformed rescuers.

Castle stands next to Beckett and with his gun indicates to the body of a man in dark clothing that the torches of the newly arrived officers show face down on the floor in front of them, "So which one of us do you think got him?"


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N : Here's the second chapter today. As I mentioned there may be a break in the release of chapters while I'm on a trip but rest assured there is more to come. Many thanks again to all that have reviewed, faved and followed. It's good to know people appreciate this._

_Disclaimer : Castle is all Marlowe's, ABC and the other great writers of the show. Having fun with their creations is just that, fun._

* * *

Beckett and Castle are standing in Captain Gates' office as the Captain, sitting at her desk, looks through the report of the shooting. She looks up from her reading at the couple in front of her and asks sternly, "So, Detective Beckett, can you explain for me how it is Mr Castle had your back-up weapon and that you both get involved in shoot-out that makes the OK Corral look like a Sunday school picnic?"

"Sir, we were following a lead to a property rented by our victim. While we were there two armed men appeared and started shooting. We took cover and as we were trapped I decided that Castle should be able to defend himself," responded Beckett totally confident in her position both professionally and personally.

"And what about the man you killed?"

"Ahh, are we sure that I didn't get him because I'm….," trails off Castle at the death glare he gets from Gates.

"Oh, I'm sure ballistics show that it was Detective Beckett's primary weapon that killed the man. If, you, a civilian, were responsible for killing a man with one of my detective's guns you would be having a much more intense conversation with detectives from IAB."

"I don't know if that's possible," responds Castle under his breath.

To cover Castle's comment, Beckett jumps in, "According to his prints the dead guy was a Gregori Motaravich a Bulgarian national who'd been here for two years. A preliminary search shows he had quite a sheet, assault, possession with intent to supply, auto theft and a lot more. He even had an outstanding warrant out for attempted murder."

"So do you think he was responsible for your victim's murder and that's why took that shot at you both? And what about the one that got away?"

"It's the most likely explanation. We think that the computer equipment we found at the scene has information on it that will point to Carmody's killer. We think they might have followed us there to try and stop us getting that information. As for the other man, Ryan and Esposito are running down his known associates now," replies Beckett keeping the information clear and to the point. She'd found that to be the best way to deal with her abrasive Captain.

"All right, sounds like you've got some work to do. I suppose I do agree that these were circumstances that warranted you arming a civilian. Just try not to keep making a habit of it," in an imperceptivity softer tone Gates continues, "I'm glad you're both OK, now do what you can to find that other guy and close this case. But think about going home first and getting some sleep, you've done enough for today."

Both Beckett and Castle nod at the order and leave the Captain's office. On the way back to Beckett's desk Castle, so as not to be overheard, asks softly, "Is it me or did she seem a little concerned for our welfare? Maybe she's finally warmed to me?"

"Maybe Castle. I expected to be hauled over the coals more than that," responds Beckett.

They reach Beckett's desk and together collapse into their respective seats. Beckett stretches in her seat, throwing back her head, closing her eyes and running her fingers through her hair. Castle sags in his seat, chin on his chest, his eyes also closed and sighing heavily and long. Both were tired, wrung out. After the adrenalin rush of the shoot-out and then the afternoon spent dealing with its aftermath both needed a break. The early night of winter had fallen outside and both were thinking of Castle's loft, sitting on the couch, fireplace warm and bright, their stomachs full from take-out Chinese, glasses of red wine in hand and resting in each other's arms. They both opened their eyes and looked at each other, their shared thoughts plain to the other without a word needing to be spoken. Their thoughts are banished by the arrival of Ryan and Esposito.

"Yo, you two OK? You look beat," asks Esposito sympathetically.

"Yeah, it didn't sound like Gates beat up on you that bad?" adds Ryan lightly trying to ease the stress from his friend's faces.

Beckett sits up, leans forward in her chair and looks up at them both, "Only got a couple of bites on our asses this time, she must have already eaten. So where are we with associates of Motaravich?"

"Plenty! We got a list of about eight known associates all with records. We've got teams from the precincts closest to their last know addresses checking them out," informs Ryan.

"Even more interestingly we got a hit on Motaravich from the Feds and Interpol. Apparently he was a suspected member of a Bulgarian human trafficking gang. They think he might be here with a group running kidnappings in the Tri state area," adds Esposito.

"Human trafficking? Kidnapping?" exclaims Castle, his fatigue temporarily forgotten, as he sits up straight in his chair.

All three of those around him, his best friends and fiancé, know where this reaction comes from. From that time a year ago when Alexis was kidnapped. The time when they had all seen Castle at his most vulnerable and distraught, but also his most determined.

"Have the Fed's got any leads on where this gang might be?" asks Beckett with a concerned look over at Castle.

"Maybe, an Agent Trent from the FBI's human trafficking taskforce will be here in the morning to brief us on what they've got," answers Ryan.

Castle stands and goes to look at the picture of Julie Carmody on the murder board, "So this might not be about Julie's modelling but that she was taken by human traffickers."

"And Sam found that out and had gathered information on their operation," adds Beckett, joining him at the board.

"Information which is on that SD card that Sam hid on his body when he was killed," continues Castle.

"Which is what got Sam killed and why his apartment was searched," adds Beckett.

Castle and Beckett turn to look at each other as Castle finishes, "And they thought that the information was also at the garage which is why they followed and attacked us."

Ryan and Esposito had seen this back and forth between them so many times before they knew not to interrupt until they were finished.

"Attacking cops is a big step," raises Ryan.

"Human trafficking is a multi-million dollar operation. I..ah..looked into it recently. There are gangs all over the world. They bribe, intimidate, kill. Do whatever it takes to run their operations with impunity. Attacking cops to keep the details of their operation hidden is nothing for them," answers Castle turning to look at Ryan and Esposito with that determined look from the year before in his eyes.

"So what about the equipment from the garage? Has CSU been able to use it to access the SD card?" asks Beckett in support.

"The techs are working on it. Like the SD card there's some heavy encryption on it. They think they can get access by the morning," answers Esposito.

"So it looks like the morning is when we'll get some answers. I think we should all call it a night," suggests Beckett.

"But if these guys took Julie, she might be out there somewhere, having god knows what done to her. We can't just wait until morning," protests Castle desperately. The emotions of Alexis' kidnapping driving all the thoughts in his mind.

Beckett grabs one of Castle's hands and turns him to look at her, "Castle, if they took Julie they've had her for almost a year. You know I hate to say this but even if she's alive she could be anywhere in the world and without more information we just don't know where and we're not going to get that information tonight. After today we're both tired. If pulling an all-nighter staring at the murder board would do it I'd be the first one in you know that. But if we're going to find these guys we need to be on top of our game and for that we need rest."

Castle looks down at his feet, sighs and replies reluctantly, "OK, you're right," he reaches into his jacket pocket for his cell phone, "I need to call Alexis." Beckett releases his hand as he walks out of the bullpen, phone to his ear.

"He going to be OK?" asks Esposito moving to stand next to Beckett as they watch him disappear around a corner.

"He's not going to go all Liam Neeson on us again is he?" adds Ryan standing on the other side of Beckett.

"No, he'll be OK. Something like this will always be raw for him you know," responds Beckett.

"I know we're still in the middle of a case but after a shooting like today it's usual for the shootees to be plied with liquor by their squad mates, Old Haunt?" raises Esposito with a look at Beckett.

"Sounds good, but raincheck OK. We're both wired and I think we need just to be at home and normal for a night. You guys go home and we'll pick it up first thing."

"Rodger that," replies Esposito.

"Sure thing," adds Ryan and they both head to their desks as Beckett moves to Castle who is returning to the bullpen, hanging up his cell phone.

"How's Alexis?" asks Beckett as Castle re-joins her.

"She's fine. Surprised I called. She asked if everything was OK. I didn't want to worry her. I just told her I wanted to hear her voice. I don't think she believed me," replies Castle.

"Smart girl. Come on, let's get some Golden Palace and head home," says Beckett as she picks up her jacket and keys from her desk.

"Sounds like just what we need, HOME," responds Castle as he falls in step beside Beckett and they both walk out of the bullpen towards the elevator.

* * *

_A/N : So now we get to Castle's investment in the case and it will be a bit more involved than Beckett's. I always thought that after Alexis' kidnapping that Castle being Castle he wouldn't be able to let it go and that it would be a trigger for him._


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N : Back from my trip and apologies for the gap in the release of a new chapter. Also, sorry for any confusion with the re-posting of chapter 9. My mistake. This chapter became quite a bit longer after I took on board the suggestion of Sanctuaria, who I thank for such encouraging reviews. Their suggestion of a scene between Castle and Alexis sparked my imagination and made me address a situation I had with the story. Before this Alexis didn't appear in the story until the very end and I couldn't come up with an organic way for her to be a part of it. I was rationalising that Molly Quinn was on vacation during the shooting of this episode. I hope the addition to this chapter doesn't slow the pace too much. Before, this chapter was just fluff, not getting into M territory but close. Basically if you wouldn't see it on the show you won't see it here. _

_Disclaimer : Castle is definitely the property of Andrew Marlowe, ABC and the other talented writers of the show. I just like to get immersed in the world and characters they created._

* * *

With a carry-bag of hot, sweet smelling Chinese take-out in one hand Castle opens the door to his loft with his other. He pushes open the door and walks in with Beckett following him close behind, the bottle of red wine in her hand her contribution to the evening. The door closes behind them but before they can proceed any further Castle is engulfed in a flurry of red hair and long limbs as Alexis tackles him in a desperate hug.

"Dad!" Alexis exclaims desperately.

"Alexis! Pumpkin, what's wrong?" asks a confused and surprised Castle who has just managed to not drop their dinner at his daughter's unexpected assault.

Alexis lifts her head from where she had it pressed into his chest to look up into his face. Seeing his look of surprise and confusion her worried expression changes. She narrows her eyes and a look of suspicion appears on her face.

"Dad, you called me, out of the blue! You were cryptic, uncommunicative and I could hear the stress and worry in your voice. Whenever you've called me or Grams like that there's been something seriously wrong. So are you going to tell me what's wrong?" asks Alexis rapidly, her still present fear showing itself in the way the words tumbled from her mouth

"I think you two have something to talk about," says Beckett as she takes the bag of food from Castle's hand, passes the pair of them and takes their dinner to the kitchen.

"Come on," says Castle as he moves his arm around Alexis' shoulder and leads her to his study.

Once they are inside the familiar and comforting space that is his memento filled study he closes the door behind them and leads her to the couch in front of the plasma TV. Once they are seated he takes her hands in his and they sit facing each other.

"Sweetie, I'm so sorry that I caused you to worry. There's nothing wrong. It's just a difficult case we're dealing with at the moment," he says earnestly looking into her blue eyes, those same eyes that mirror his own.

Seeing his sincerity and none of the tells indicating that he's lying, she is relieved but now has to set him straight, "Ok, you say there's nothing wrong and I believe you but seriously Dad you can't keep doing that. The number of times we've had conversations like that and I find out latter that you were in danger or Kate was in danger or the whole city was in danger. I know that you think you are trying to protect me but I've grown up and I can read between the lines. I'll always worry about what you and Kate do but I've come to accept it but a call like that really stretches that acceptance."

Castle looks down at their hands and sighs, "I know and I appreciate that the work I've been doing with Kate at the 12th hasn't been easy for you. You didn't grow up with me being a cop or even a pretend cop so that you could at least be a little prepared for some of the things that could happen. But I promise that I would never do anything that would deliberately put myself at risk."

"Oh really, like sticking your nose into a federal investigation, that you have no right to get involved with, other than it being Kate's case, being infected with a deadly toxin and nearly dying," interrupts Alexis sarcastically.

Castle cringes at that example from his recent past and looks at her contritely, "Yeah, you got me there."

"I just want you to be honest with me Dad, to communicate with me. To treat me like an adult and trust me so that I don't think the worst," she pauses for a moment and then asks in a quiet voice. "Remember that time you and Grams were held hostage in the bank and we all had dinner afterwards?"

Castle nods, not sure where she is going with this.

"Do you remember going over with Kate all the times you both saved each other's lives?" she continues carefully.

Starting to get where she is coming from he nods again, slowly.

"Do you realise that was the first time I heard of some of those stories. Stories of where you could have gotten yourself killed. It was bad enough at the time dealing with the fact of all those times I could have lost you on top of what had happened that day, including breaking up with Ashley, but what was almost as bad was only just hearing of those stories from you then. That you didn't trust me enough to tell me those stories when they happened. I need you to promise me that you'll be more open with me about this and trust me to be able deal with all the crazy stuff you get yourself into, OK?" and she gives him a look at he was sure she could of only have learnt from Beckett.

Castle thinks for a moment on how deeply his daughter has been affected by his life over the last few years and makes a vow to himself and then to her, "OK Pumpkin, I promise to treat you the way you have always deserved to be treated. To be honest with you and not to hide anything from you," he pauses and gives her a hopeful look. "So are we good?"

She puts her arms around his neck, smiles and gives him a peck on the cheek, "Yes dad, we're good. Now what about this case that has you so concerned?"

"Ah, testing me already I see. Ok, well, we're investigating a murder where it's possible the victim's sister was kidnapped by a human trafficking gang and….," he pauses not wanting to go further but he doesn't need to as Alexis immediately gets where he is coming from. The smile drops from her face.

"Oh, and you were thinking about last year," she completes for him back to her quiet voice.

"Yeah," he answers in a similarly quiet voice.

It's Alexis' turn to sigh, "And you were worried about me? Have been ever since then?"

"Yeah, you know me. I can't let it go. I think of our victim's sister and what might of happened to her and all I can think of is what could of and what DID happen to you," he says looking back into her eyes.

"Yes, I know you and you also know that I've tried really hard to put last year behind me. All my time with Dr Harrison has helped but it will always be a part of me and I know it will always be a part of you. You have your own ways of dealing, some a bit more obsessive than others," she gives him a small smile at that, "But we both have to try and move on and be thankful that we got through it. What's the alternative? I never leave my room or you go with me everywhere 24/7?"

"Hey, don't think I didn't give those options serious consideration," Castle protests only half joking.

She gives him another smile, "We're a great pair. I worry about you, you worry about me…"

"And we both worry about what your grandmother gets up to on her dates," interjects Castle.

"Eww!" they both say at once and then share a comforting laugh together.

As they smile at each other Alexis takes a breath and says, "Well, if you're sure you're going to be alright I've got a date with some classmates for dinner and a movie. I'll be back at eleven, OK Dad?"

"OK, have fun!" replies Castle as they both get up from the couch and make their way out of the study.

Alexis walks over to the counter where she left her bag and where Beckett has set out dinner for her and Castle. Alexis picks up her bag, gives Beckett a wave as she walks out and calls to her, "See you later Kate!"

"Night Alexis!" responds Beckett and after young redhead has disappeared behind the closed front door she turns to Castle. "All good?"

"Yeah, as you said she's a smart girl. I made a promise to try and be more open about certain things," responds Castle as he ambles over to the counter to look at the food laid out there. The aroma bringing a rumble to his stomach.

"Yeah, I heard," and at the curious look she gets from Castle at that continues, "Come on Castle, the wall to your study is only a bunch of shelves. You can totally hear everything that goes on in there. Anyway, I'm proud of both of you. That you can both work things out like that. Yet another reason I can't wait to join this family, officially. Now come on I'm starving. Let's eat!"

* * *

Fulfilling the thoughts they'd had earlier at the precinct Beckett and Castle are reclining on the couch in the living room of the loft, wine glasses in their hands, Castle holding Beckett with her head resting on his chest. Both have changed into much more casual clothes from those they wore all day at the precinct. A black pullover and black, loose fitting pants for Castle. Light grey yoga pants and a cream coloured, loose fitting, low necked blouse for Beckett. They were enjoying a quiet loft with both Alexis and Martha out. After having their fill of Chinese they now lay in silence, just listening to the reassuring sound of each other's breathing.

After another particularly heavy sigh from Castle, Beckett breaks the silence, "You still thinking about Alexis?"

"No, Julie Carmody, I just can't help it. One of my worst nightmares came true when Alexis was taken but at least she had me, you and all the guys at the precinct worrying about her and doing everything we could to get her back. With her parents and Sam gone she's got no one to stand up for her."

Beckett rolls so that she can look up into his face, "We'll stand for her, Rick. We'll do what we always do. Speak for the victim. Speak for Sam by finding his killers and who took his sister. But you know that after all this time it's going to be hard to find anything on where Julie is? Even if we find these guys and take them down we may not find out what happened to her or if we do that she may not be alive."

"I know. It's just that I've gotten used to being able to write the ending I want. All the work we've done together, all the murderers we've put behind bars have added to my belief that we can solve anything, write any ending. Something like this brings it home that not everything can be fixed with the tap of my keyboard or a brilliant take down by you."

"Well the story isn't over yet. You might still be able to write that ending you want. The ending that Sam wanted. We'll just have to work together to get it," she reassures him with a smile.

He returns her smile and tilts his head back as he takes a sip of his merlot, "Oww!" he exclaims, reaching for top of his head with his free hand.

"What's wrong?" asks Beckett concerned.

"I don't know, I just felt a sharp pain on the top of my head when it touched the couch," he says carefully touching the top of his head searching for the source of the pain.

Beckett sets her wine glass down on the coffee table next to the couch, gets up, straddling Castle and leans over him to look at the top of his head.

"Ohh," exclaims Beckett in a concerned tone as she examines the top of Castle's head.

"What?" asks Castle just as concerned at Beckett's tone.

"I think you are getting a bald spot," replies Beckett with a mischievous grin that Castle can't see, wanting to lighten his mood.

"WHAT?" shouts Castle. Beckett is almost thrown from his lap as he bolts upright reaching to feel his head for any patches of bare skin on his head. Beckett starts laughing, holding her hand in front of her face, taking perverse pleasure at how easy it is to get him to react to that particular fear of his.

Seeing her reaction Castle immediately knows he's been had, "Oh, VERY funny! Thanks for that Kate! Oww," he stops as his searching fingers encounter that same pain again on the top of his head.

"OK, OK, I'm sorry. Now sit back and let me have a look," instructs Beckett as she pushes on his chest so that he is sitting back and she can lean over him to look again at the top of his head. "Ah, looks like you've still got a piece of glass in your hair from the garage. Ohh and you're bleeding a little," observes Beckett as she carefully picks out a sliver of glass from his scalp.

She gets up and takes the sliver of glass to the kitchen and drops it in the trash. She tears off some paper towels, returns to Castle, resuming her position, straddling him and leans over the top of his head. With the paper towels scrunched into a ball she starts to apply pressure to the wound.

"Oww!" exclaims Castle again.

"Oh stop being a baby, it's only a scratch."

She holds pressure on the wound for a while before releasing the pressure, looking at the wound and dabbing at it a couple more times. She leans back and shows the towel to Castle, "Look the bleeding's stopped already."

Castle, his chagrin at Beckett's joke forgotten, had been enjoying the view of Beckett's chest in his face through the low scooped neck of her blouse. He looks up at her with an expression of faux innocence on his face, "Um, are you sure you got it all. I think there might be some more in there."

Seeing that lascivious twinkle in his eye she arches her eyebrow and answers with a sultry voice, "Well if you think so I better make sure."

With that she leans forward again, smiles and then bites her lower lip as she feels Castle kiss her chest, starting as he usually did, at the scar on her breast bone. Her face and neck soon flush with heat at the eager ministrations of Castle's mouth and tongue on her skin. She drops the paper towel, holds his head to her chest and runs her fingers through his hair as she feels herself become more and more aroused. Eventually she releases his head and leans back reluctantly as his mouth is forced from the worship of her skin. She looks into his bright blue eyes with her darkened hazel ones and asks breathlessly, "You know, to make sure it's all out of there I should really wash your hair. Care to join me in the shower?"

Smiling wide at the excellence of her suggestion Castle responds, "Lead the way."


	11. Chapter 11

_A/N : Back to the case after an interlude at the loft. Many thanks again to all that have viewed, reviewed, faved and followed this story._

_Disclaimer : AWM, ABC and the writers room own the characters of Castle. I'm just one of many that are obsessed with this show and what they came up with._

* * *

The next morning Beckett and Castle exit the elevator of the 12th each carrying their usual take-out cups of coffee. As they walk up to Beckett's desk and take their seats Esposito and Ryan approach and Esposito welcomes them, "Mornin' you two, sleep well?"

Beckett and Castle share a look and Beckett replies, "Yeah, you could say that. Any news on those computers of Carmody's? Have the techs been able to crack them yet?"

Ryan shares his own look with Esposito at the look between their friends and Beckett's opening comment before responding, "No luck yet. They're still trying but they've hit a firewall they can't crack. Looks like there's some form of hardware that's missing that will allow access. They'll keep trying and let us know. But, we have heard back from the Fitchburg PD about that van."

Esposito takes up the story, "According to our Fitchburg brethren the van in question has not left the owner's sight and at the time of the murder it was parked outside the front of his house. It was still there when he went out for an early call at 4am to fix a busted toilet. The Fitchburg cops confirmed that there was no damage to the van consistent with our murder plus the van is coloured white and looks like it's been that colour for a long time."

"So if that's right the plates on our van must be fake, but who would go to the trouble of making fake plates?" asks Beckett.

"A gang of international human traffickers would. They'd have the resources to fake plates. It's ingenious really, they steal a van and then put plates on it from a van that isn't stolen so that the number plate scanning cameras in police patrol units don't pick it up," responds Castle.

"Any word on any abandoned vans matching the description? I'm thinking that they'll dump it now it's so hot," surmises Beckett.

"Nothing yet but units are keeping a lookout," replies Ryan.

At that moment a tall, pale, dark haired man in his early forties and an equally dark suit, walks up and interrupts them holding up a badge, "Special Agent Trent FBI, I'm looking for a Detective Beckett?"

Beckett stands and holds out her hand to shake the agent's hand, "That would be me Agent Trent," after shaking hands she indicates to her team, "These are Detective's Ryan and Esposito and Mr Castle."

"Ah yes, Mr Castle. You've been a regular name on our call sheets wanting information on trafficking operations in the city," responds Trent after nodding to the other detectives.

"Yes, and after I called Agent Harris, who helped me and my daughter last year, I found you a bit more cooperative," gives back Castle with a small smile.

Beckett intervenes before things get too side tracked, "So Agent Trent, what can you tell us about Gregori Motaravich and his associates?"

Trent walks over to the murder board where the picture of Motaravich is displayed and taps it with a finger, "Gregori Motaravich, a very bad guy. He's part of a trafficking gang from Bulgaria that we think is working in the boroughs. From what we could tell Motaravich was a mid-level guy in the gang, mostly muscle. They're a close knit group, a lot of family ties, just like the mob. We caught one of their gang during an undercover operation at a night club once. He was one of their spotters but even though he's been in federal lock-up for the last three months he won't talk. We've been looking for this gang for over a year but hadn't been able to get a handle on them. As you can imagine they kidnap young women, usually ones that are alone or from out of town and then smuggle them to various points around the world. We've had some success curtailing their smuggling routes but they still seem to find new ones somehow."

"Anything more specific on where in the city we might find this gang?" asks Beckett.

"Only vague reports of them working out of some old warehouses in the docks or that they could be working out of the Hamilton Heights area," Beckett and Castle share a look at that revelation, "Your being attacked by Motaravich in that area was not a coincidence. As for the other members of the gang I understand you're already running down his known associates."

"Yeah, we've heard from the teams from the other precincts and so far none of them are at the addresses we have for them," adds Esposito.

"After you bagged Motaravich they've probably gone to ground. They could even be thinking of relocating to another city," supplies Trent.

"What about our victim, Sam Carmody, had he been in contact with you about his sister Julie?" asks Castle as he gets up and indicates to the picture of the victim on the murder board.

"I looked into our records and he did contact us when his sister first went missing but we were unable to help him. While her disappearance was consistent with an abduction by a trafficking gang there was no direct evidence that would indicate that," informs Trent.

"Until now," counters Castle.

Trent looks at Castle with an expression of slight embarrassment, "Yes, his murder and the attack on you and Detective Beckett would indicate that she was taken by Motaravich's trafficking gang. Your victim must have gotten too close to them or had information on their operation so they took him out."

"So now that there IS evidence that Julie Carmody was kidnapped by this gang are you going to investigate?" pushes Castle.

"In a way we already have been. This gang is already on our hit list and her disappearance will now be another in a long list of missing girls that we're pursuing them over," at the Beckett like roll of eyes he gets from Castle at this he continues earnestly, "Look I know that's not what you want to hear but we have to be realistic. You think I want these guys kidnapping young women with impunity? I've got two daughters myself and the last thing I want is more young women being subjected to the horror of these people."

Castle is mollified a little by Trent's sincerity, looks away, sits back down and ponders the murder board.

"Is there any assistance your taskforce could give us on this? Our techs are having problems accessing some computers belonging to our victim. We think they might have information on his sister's kidnaping and on the kidnappers. Do you think your techs could try cracking them?" asks Beckett.

"Sure, I'll have…," Trent is interrupted by Castle whose gaze had become fixed on a point on the murder board.

"We might not need them," with a look of inspiration on Castle's face he gets up and snatches an evidence bag that had been hanging on the murder board. Turning to Ryan he asks, "Are Carmody's computers in the tech room?"

"Yeah, they're...," replies Ryan indicating over his shoulder but before he can say anything more Castle is off holding up the evidence bag up as he strides away. Everyone left behind looks at each other in surprise and curiosity as they all set off in pursuit of Castle.

"Castle?" calls Beckett as everyone follows in the wake of the excited writer into the tech room.

In the room, where Tori and a young male tech are hunched in front of the equipment recovered from the garage, Castle pauses, looks at Beckett, holding up a finger as if to say, "One minute," and opens the evidence bag. He takes out the RF chip that had been in Carmody's arm and starts looking over the array of equipment in front of him.

Almost to himself he says, "Ryan, you said that there was a piece of hardware that was stopping the techs accessing the computers and Sorizo said Sam was a hardware guy. If a hardware guy wanted to make sure no one could access his computer he would build something that would give only him access. We saw at the garage that Sam made this chip himself and if I'm right….Ah! Excuse me," he apologises to the male tech as he leans over his shoulder towards the laptop that the tech is working on.

Castle holds the chip over a small indentation in the bottom right hand corner of the keyboard. An indentation that looks like one of those fingerprint scanners that some laptops have on them for security purposes. After a few seconds there is a distinct beep from the laptop and its screen and the corresponding plasma screen on the wall above them starts showing a start-up screen soon followed by a window with a long list of folder icons.

"And we're in," says Castle as he stands back up and looks at Beckett in triumph.

Giving Castle a smile, Beckett moves forward to look closer at the information on the plasma. She indicates to one of the file folders on the screen and to Tori says, "That one. The one that says "Julie". Open that one."

Tori complies and the screen is soon full of file icons of various types.

"Sam gathered a lot of information," comments Castle.

"That video file. The one that says "Hamilton Heights Gang #1". Open that one," asks Trent as he joins Castle and Beckett in front of the plasma. After Tori clicks on the file icon the screen is filled with a shaky video taken from a distance of a group of men getting out of a dark blue van and walking into a nearby warehouse.

"There's our van!" exclaims Beckett, pointing at the screen. The video was finished and the screen went black. "Take it back to where we see them going into the warehouse."

The video image returns and moves backward until the image of the men in front of the warehouse reappears where it freezes. Beckett leans closer to peer at the image, "I can't see anything that might identify where that warehouse might be." She turns to the boys, "There's a lot of stuff here and we need to go through it all. There's got to be more here to indicate where these guys are."

Trent chimes in, "Detective Beckett, if you could send me a copy of this information I have the manpower to go through this all and hopefully cut down the time it will take to find them. If we find anything we'll let you know and likewise if you do could you let me know what you find? My team could help you with getting these guys when the time comes."

"Sure, we'd welcome the help. Just remember this is a NYPD operation and we are concerned with catching Carmody's killers. After that you are more than welcome to have whatever is left for human trafficking," responds Beckett assertively.

"What about that SD card have you got that? We might be able to see what's on it," asks Castle.

Tori reaches to one side and picks up an evidence bag, "Yeah, here it is." She opens the bag and puts it into an adaptor and then into a slot in the side of the laptop. There is another beep from the laptop and another window opens with more file folders.

"Great, more stuff to go through!" exclaims Esposito.

"There are over a thousand files here. This is going to take all day," comments Ryan.

"The sooner we get started the sooner we find these guys," responds Beckett.

Trent hands Beckett a business card, "Detective, get your techs to call this number and they can liaise with mine about transmitting the information to us and then they can help going through it all. I'll be in touch," and with that he take his leave.

Beckett turns to the techs, "OK, send a copy of everything to Agent Trent's people and then divide the files evenly and send them to mine, Esposito's and Ryan's terminals."

"Kate, give me a terminal. I can help go through this stuff. I can concentrate on the files from the SD card," asks Castle.

"OK, you can go through it on the computers in here."

As Castle takes a seat next to Tori, to start going through his share, the others leave to go to their own desks and start what Ryan had rightly said would be a long day.


	12. Chapter 12

_A/N : I hope you are all still enjoying this story. We're at the business end now and if this was a show I think I'm about to blow the budget. Ah, the freedom of not actually writing for the show. _

_Disclaimer : Andrew W Marlowe, ABC and those other hardworking writers own Castle. In some alternate universe I hope I'm one of them._

* * *

Night has fallen as Castle, dressed in his WRITER vest, peers around the corner of the brick building. His back is pressed against the rough surface of the wall as he tries remain invisible to any watchers. From this position he can make out the dimly lit front of the warehouse that he had seen on the video on Sam Carmody's computer. It had taken them all day but between the four of them, and the FBI, they had been able to piece enough information together to find this place. Once located Beckett had gone to Captain Gates who had coordinated with ESU and the FBI for teams to make a raid on the warehouse.

"Castle!" whispers Beckett from behind him.

Ducking back out of sight he looks at Beckett who is signalling for him to join her and the group that are all clustered around the hood of her car. He joins the group that, along with Beckett, includes, Ryan, Esposito, Agent Trent, Captain Peterson from ESU and Agent Breckenridge of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team. All are in their body armour for the raid. From the light of a torch held by Ryan they are all looking at a diagram that includes floor plans of the target warehouse and the surrounding buildings

"So this is the place," starts Beckett indicting at the diagram. "From these plans there are three obvious points of entry. The main doors here at the front, a door on the north side and a door at the back to the west. Agent Breckenridge, have you been able to use your thermal imaging equipment to see inside?"

"Yes, we can make out a large concentration of people at the back north west corner of the building. There are also individual images of sentries on the roof of the building at the front and back. We can use the cover of the surrounding buildings to get close and to cover the exits but as soon as we break cover for the assault those sentries will see. In my opinion our best option is to go in hard and fast, not giving them time to react," suggests Breckenridge looking around the group.

Captain Peterson nods in agreement, "I agree. We can use our armoured Bearcat SUV to breach the main doors while the combined ESU and HRT teams go in through the other entry points. Plus our and the FBI snipers will take overwatch positions on these buildings here and here and take out the sentries if they make any hostile moves," he says pointing at adjacent buildings on the diagram. "Detective Beckett, you and your team can follow the SUV through the main doors."

"What if they have some girls that they've kidnapped in there?" asks Castle.

"If they have anyone they're likely to be in the large group in the north-west corner. The breach of the front doors will draw attention there and the teams that go in through the other two entry points are ideally placed to pincer that group while any guards are focussed at the front," responds Agent Trent.

"OK, it will take about fifteen minutes for everyone to get in position. After that we'll go on Captain Peterson's order for his SUV to breach the front," finishes Beckett with a nod to them all as the group breaks up.

Castle stays with Beckett staring at the diagram laid out on the hood of her car. In the dim light Beckett can just make out the determined and yet sorrowful look on his face.

"I suppose there's no use in me asking you to stay here when we go in?" she asks quietly.

He looks up at her and cocks an eyebrow at her, "After all these years? Anyway, I have to do this."

"And what about what you said to Alexis about not deliberately putting yourself at risk?" she tries one last card to keep him safe.

"Kate, it's because of Alexis that I have to come with you. I have to see this through. Otherwise I wouldn't feel like I'd done all I could to protect her and all I could for Sam and Julie," he pauses and then gives his own look to Beckett. "Plus, I worry about you too. I couldn't stand it with you going in there and not being with you."

"I know, but promise me you'll stay down and behind the rest of us?" she asks this time with resignation and a little desperation.

He looks into her pleading eyes and replies solemnly yet with a quirk of his mouth giving a hint of a smile, "I promise."

At that moment Esposito and Ryan re-join them, each in their vests and with assault rifles slung across their chests.

"Ready to go?" asks Esposito.

"Yeah," responds Beckett as she gathers up the diagram from the hood of the car. She moves to the driver's door, Esposito goes to the front passenger door and Castle and Ryan move to the rear doors. As Esposito reaches his door he looks at Beckett over the roof of the car and glances at Castle and then back at her with a questioning look. She shakes her head at the unasked question and then gives her own look, indicating with her head, from Esposito to Castle. He nods in reply as the unspoken pact is made, he'll look after Castle. Once they are all seated in the car she starts the engine and moves it into position behind the two ESU vehicles readying for the assault.

Beckett looks at her father's watch on her arm resting on the steering wheel in front of her as the minutes tick by. She feels the movement of the car behind her as Ryan jiggles a leg with nervous energy. She listens to the steady, measured breathing of Esposito beside her as he does his own, almost meditation, before going into action. She looks into the rear vision mirror and reaches to adjust it so that she can look at Castle. Seeing the movement he stops his contemplation out the window to return her look in the mirror. They lock gazes until they are interrupted by the crackle of Beckett's radio.

"All units ready?" asks the voice of Captain Peterson.

Beckett waits her turn as the other teams give their affirmatives before responding, "Beckett, ready to go!"

"OK, all units. Execute! Execute! Execute!" commands Peterson.

With that the ESU vehicles in front of them, armoured SUV leading, accelerate with dust flying from their tyres. Beckett slams her car into gear and follows the ESU vehicles as they tear around the corner leading to the warehouse. Foot to the floor they take no time at all to reach the front of the building. The armoured SUV, with its large, solid bull bar specifically designed for this purpose, crashes through the roller doors at the front of the building with the screech of protesting metal and sparks flying. The ESU van in front of Beckett's car follows the SUV inside and swerves to the left and stops. The rear door opens and the black, armoured, heavily armed ESU team members start jumping out. Beckett steers her car to the right of the SUV, which is stopped in the centre of the warehouse, and stops with a jerk and squeal of breaks.

As they all open their doors and lunge out of the car yelling, "POLICE!" there are the first indications that their dramatic entrance has been noticed. Gunfire starts erupting from various points within towards the invading vehicles and their occupants. Beckett takes cover behind her open door with her Glock up and looks for targets. She spies several muzzle flashes with vague, human shapes behind them from some crates at the rear of the building and from a balcony at the top of some stairs leading to a second level. The ESU officers start returning fire as does she, aiming at the flashes. There is the chatter of Esposito's rifle from the other side of the car and she spots one of the vague human shapes on the balcony above drop. The number of flashes and shapes start reducing as the ESU team slowly advances.

Seeing her window Beckett advances herself, moving in a crouching run towards the cover of some crates ahead of her. Moments behind her Ryan crashes into the crate beside her. She takes a second to look for the rest of her team and spots Esposito and Castle making their own crouching run to a crate next to them. She and Ryan both pop up and fire to supply cover for their partners. A feeling of relief briefly makes it through the adrenalin pounding in her system as she sees Castle and Esposito make it safely to cover. Beckett then takes three quick shots at the remaining flash and shape on the balcony above, is rewarded with the sight of her target dropping limply and then ducks back.

She pauses and does a quick check of her team. Both Ryan and Esposito are returning fire over the top of their cover and Castle has his head down, next to Esposito and looking over at her. She gives him a nod, which he returns and then she turns her attention back to the business at hand. Beckett pops her head up again quickly to reassess the situation ahead of her. There is less fire coming at them now but from what she can see from her quick assessment, the positions that the remaining fire is coming from are in good cover. They will be too difficult to get at from the front.

That's when the next part of the plan takes effect as she hears shouts of "Federal Agents! Drop your weapons!" from points ahead and either side of where the gunfire is coming from. As the fire gradually stops she takes a beat before getting up from behind cover with her gun thrust out in front of her and moves forward. Ryan, his own weapon up, follows her and she sees out of the corner of her eye Esposito with Castle behind him doing the same. They pick their way through the crates as they start hearing calls of "Clear!" from ahead. Rounding the last line of crates they come across a scene of five men face down on the ground, automatic weapons next to them. Some HRT members are covering them while others are crouching over them, securing their hands behind their backs with zip ties.

Beyond this group Beckett sees a tarp hanging down, obscuring the rest of the area. She looks at her team and indicating with her head they all move towards the tarp. They find a gap in the middle and with their guns leading the way they push their way into the rest of the warehouse. Fortunately they are not greeted with more gunfire and instead find a small area with two shipping containers against the wall in front of them. Sounds of movement and what could be voices from inside the containers have them move over to them quickly. At that moment they are joined by Agent Trent and several members of his team. Beckett indicates with hand signals for Trent and his people to take the container to the right while she indicates to her team for them to move to the one on the left.

She looks at Ryan who takes the hint and moves to the slightly open door, slings his rifle and grips the door. Once she and Esposito are in position, weapons pointing at the door and Castle behind them, she gives a nod to Ryan. He pulls open the door she and Esposito start yelling, "POLICE! Don't move!" as they rush into the container. The light from the open door illuminates the interior and they are confronted with the sight of a large, tattooed man with a dark beard, in black clothes and close cropped hair standing behind a terrified and dishevelled young woman. The pistol he his holding pressing roughly to her throat. Behind them Beckett can make out a group of similarly dishevelled women huddled on their knees at the back of the container.

Looking from the terrified eyes of the young woman being held hostage to the wide desperate eyes of her captor Beckett yells, "Drop the weapon and let her go!"

"Drop it, scum bag!" adds Esposito.

"No! You drop your guns or I kill her," responds the man in a thick European accent.

"No, you drop yours. You're not going anywhere. There are a hundred cops outside. They're not going to just let you walk out of here. The only way you get out of this alive is if you drop your weapon and let her go," responds Beckett forcefully. She senses movement beside her and curses internally as she hears Castle's deep voice.

"Come on, let the girl go. It's over," Castle is speaking to him in an overly calm and reassuring voice, "Where's the profit in dying now. As she said, there are hundreds of cops out there. You won't be able to shield yourself from them all. One of them will get an opportunity to take a shot and if you kill her now my friends here will just kill you straight away."

They watch as a look of desperate frustration comes across the bearded kidnappers face. He suddenly jerks his gun from the woman's neck and points it at Castle. Everyone's guns jerk up a little more at that but are unable to fire without risking hitting the hostage. Beckett shifts her weight slightly, getting ready to shoulder Castle out of the firing line.

"So maybe I just shoot you," says the kidnapper with desperate menace.

"Do that and I guarantee that it will be the last thing you do," growls Beckett with absolute conviction.

The kidnapper looks into Beckett's eyes and sees the cold certainty of his fate written there. His eyes dart around the container, searching desperately for a way out. With a frustrated gasp he drops his gun and raises both of his hands above his head. With his grip on her released the girl crumples to the ground at his feet. Ryan and Esposito move past Beckett as she keeps her gun trained on the kidnapper. They pick up his weapon, frisk him and push him to his knees. They start reading him his rights as they handcuff him behind his back. Once he is secured Castle moves to the side of the girl collapsed in front of them. Taking a grip of her shoulders he slowly, gently pulls her up to face him.

"It's Ok. It's OK. You're safe now," he reassures her.

Beckett lowers her gun and moves to the back of the container where there are about ten other women now looking up at her hopefully.

"We're the police. You're all safe now," she adds crouching down onto her haunches to look them all in the eye.

* * *

_A/N : I know that Castle shouldn't of been within a mile of this raid but I couldn't leave him waiting outside while it all went down._


	13. Chapter 13

_A/N : So after a bit of action time for a regroup. We're not finished just yet. Still a little way to go. Thanks again to all that have stuck with this story and have reviewed._

_Disclaimer : Castle comes from the minds of Andrew Marlowe, David Amann and the other writers under the auspices of ABC/Disney. Ideas of things to do with what they've come up with just keep springing from my mind._

* * *

Castle is standing at the coffee machine in the break room of the 12th preparing two cups of triple strength espresso. It is 2am and an hour since they all got back from the raid on the warehouse. With uncanny timing, just he finishes preparing the last cup, Beckett joins him. She takes the proffered cup with a weary smile.

"Thanks."

"How's it going out there?" asks Castle sympathetically.

"The members of the gang that survived aren't talking but we don't need them to. That warehouse was full of evidence. Plus some of the girls are talking," responds Beckett, resting her hip against the break room counter and taking an appreciative sip of her coffee.

"Some?"

"Yeah, they are all very traumatised. We've got councillors here helping but it will be a long road for them. I saw you talking to the girl that was held hostage. What did she say?" she enquires with raised eyebrows.

"What you'd expect. She'd been taken at a night club three nights ago. One minute she was heading to the restroom at the back of the club and the next she wakes up in that container. The gang didn't speak to the girls except to threaten them and tell them to be quiet. Just before we got there they told them they were going for a trip in the morning and not to try to escape or they would all be hurt," responds Castle taking a sip of his own coffee.

"That fits with what the other girls are saying. Also, there was a semi out the back with more fake plates. Looks like they were going to take them out of the city by road. The ports here in New York must have become too hot for them," Beckett pauses and takes another sip of coffee looking at Castle over the rim of her cup. "You know I should be mad at you for stepping forward in that container. After I told you to stay behind us what do you do but get a criminal to point his gun at you," she looks at him in the eyes but her tone is resigned rather than angry.

Castle has the good grace to look away at his feet, embarrassed, "I know. I just needed to help. I did get him to surrender."

"Yeah, you did and I know that telling you to stay behind sometimes is like telling you not to breathe but I worry about you. I don't want you adding another punctuation point to your vest. You complained so much about that bruise last time," she adds finishing with a quirk of her mouth to an almost smile so that he knows she's not really upset.

He looks up and gives her a slight smile in response, "I promise to listen to you if for nothing else than to save the expense of getting yet another vest." Getting back to business he continues, "I saw that van we were looking for in a corner of the warehouse. So they hadn't got rid of it. Any other evidence to link them to Sam's murder?"

"CSU are running ballistics on all the guns we collected. They might have gotten rid of the one that shot Sam but hopefully one of them will match the bullet Lanie took from his shoulder. None of them were wearing gloves so we'll be able to match a gun to a shooter."

"What's next?" asks Castle taking a long drink of his coffee, draining it and setting the cup down.

"I better get started on the report on all this. Gates wants a debrief with the top brass from 1PP first thing plus I want to be here if CSU comes up with anything. Why don't you go home? At least one of us should get some sleep," she asks taking her own last long drink of her coffee, picking up Castle's cup and taking it and hers and placing them in the sink for washing up later.

"No way. If you're staying, I'm staying. I saw some computer equipment from the warehouse being taken into the tech room. I thought I'd see if I could help Tori go through it all. Plus I didn't get to finish going through all the stuff on Sam's SD card."

"Do you think you'll find anything more on it that will be relevant?"

"I'm not sure. I've just got a feeling that there's something more there," he finishes with conviction.

Beckett shrugs her shoulders and leads him out of the break room, "OK, far be it from me to put a damper on this new found enthusiasm to stick around while I do paperwork. Let me know if you find anything."

"Sure," and he heads off towards the tech room as Beckett takes her seat at her desk.

Beckett spends the next two hours drafting her report on the raid. She is interrupted from her tedious task a couple of times. First by Agent Trent taking his leave and then by Ryan and Esposito as they report back on their interviews of the victims and the gang members. Like with Castle she tries to get the boys to go home but they insist on staying and continuing with the interviews. Now from her desk she can see the both of them, crashed at their desks. The bullpen is almost empty. All the extra officers and FBI had left and only the small night crew were present. The surviving members of the gang are in holding and the freed girls have been sent to hospital of observation. Thinking that an hour or so on the couch in the break room will help her face the brass in a few hours she gets up and heads to the tech room to find Castle. With her shoulder resting on the door frame of the tech room she sees him hunched in front of a keyboard and monitor, chin in one hand as the other clicks away at a mouse while he stares at the screen.

"Hey, where's Tori?" she asks as she walks over and takes the seat next to him.

"After she showed me what to do I told her to go home. No use in all of us looking like zombies tomorrow, I mean today. The boys?" he asks turning in his chair to look at her.

"Finally zonked out at their desks. I was going to try and get forty in the break room. Find anything?"

"Quite a bit. Looks like he'd only started following them in the last couple of weeks. Still going through it all. He'd been leaving a lot of gaps between saving material and some of it is out of sequence. He was probably busy following them and was only saving files in bulk when he got a chance. If we are right and he was following them the night he was killed and they saw him then I'm hoping there might be something here from that night. I also found some journal entries that indicate he might have gotten a line on someone giving tech support to the gang," he replies as he rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands.

"Why don't you take a break and try and get some shut eye as well? I'd ask you to join me in the break room but I don't think Gates would appreciate finding us spooning on the couch, even if we could both fit on it," she asks reaching out to rub his forearm.

Castle gives a snort, "Yeah, unfortunately if we could both fit sleep would definitely be all we'd be doing. Even if that is a fantasy I've had for quite a while," he responds with a weary smile and waggle of his eyebrows.

Beckett rolls her eyes but returns with her own weary grin, "Why am I not surprised. You know that it's normally you pestering me to get some rest, to take a break from a case. I'm not sure I can stand these role reversals. Come on, take a break and when you get back to it you'll be fresher and ready to find what you need," suggests Beckett continuing to rub his arm.

"OK, I'll try. That armchair in the corner is looking a bit inviting. I'm starting to think I should invest in a couple of camp beds to be kept here when we do these all-nighters. Of course if you're sure you don't want some company in the break room all you have to do is ask. I wouldn't mind being your mattress," he adds looking hopefully at her.

"Tempting babe, but no. Get some rest," and with a parting squeeze of his arm she gets up and leaves.


	14. Chapter 14

_A/N : Hope you all enjoy this chapter._

_Disclaimer : The entertainment that is Castle comes from Andrew Marlowe, David Amann, ABC/Disney and all the others lucky enough to be employed writing for them. I just sit here in my WRITER hoody trying to come up with stuff half as good as theirs. _

* * *

"KATE! KATE! Wake up!"

Beckett is jolted awake from the dreamless sleep she's been having on the break room couch by the excited voice of Castle. Before she can respond or even think a coherent thought she is grabbed by the wrist, pulled up and dragged out of the room by her arm.

Being literally dragged into wakefulness she finally responds to her over excited fiancé, "Castle, what is it?"

"I've found something you've got to see," he replies as he drags her into the tech room and leads her to a chair in front of a computer monitor. As she takes her seat she notices Ryan and Esposito, both obviously attracted by the commotion caused by Castle, enter the room behind them. Both of them looking as disturbed from a deep sleep as she felt.

Castle, in the seat next to Beckett, reaches for the computer mouse in front of him. As he starts clicking away he explains rapidly, "I tried getting some sleep but I just couldn't get comfortable in that chair so I went back to looking through the contents of the SD card. I found a folder of files that Sam had labelled "Accounts" but was locked with further encryption. I was able to use the RF chip to access the folder. It was like he was afraid that someone might hack his system so he added another level of security. Someone like...," and with his ever present flair for the dramatic he makes a final click of the mouse.

On the screen in front of her a photo appears. It is taken from a distance and is of a group of men. She can identify several of the gang of kidnappers, including Motarovich who is handing what looks like an envelope to, "Paul Sorizo!" she exclaims.

"What! That nerd?" exclaims Esposito as he and Ryan move closer to get look at the screen over Beckett's shoulder.

"Yes, that supposedly good college friend of our victim was in fact the tech support for the kidnapping gang. I found it all in these files. Photos of meetings and journal entries by Sam from about two weeks ago when he discovered that Sorizo was working with the gang. He also figured out that Sorizo was hacking into modelling agency sites for the gang and into DMV databases for the information to produce fake licence plates," as Castle describes what he found he clicks through a series of photos showing different meetings between the kidnappers and Sorizo.

"Was Sorizo working with the kidnappers the whole time?" asks Ryan.

"I don't think so. From Sam's journals he thought that it might have only been a recent thing but he became suspicious of Sorizo when none of the information he gave Sam led anywhere. Also, while Sam was mainly a hardware guy he was still able to find a trojan virus that Sorizo installed on one of his computers to monitor it. So he decided to start following Sorizo and he led him to the kidnappers," concluded Castle.

"OK! Ryan, central booking should still have him. Call them up and have him brought over for us. He's got some explaining to do," requests Beckett, looking over her shoulder.

They all follow Ryan out of the tech room as he goes to his desk and places the call. After making the request for the transfer of their suspect his face changes from confidence to confusion.

"What? When was that?...OK, thanks," and with an annoyed look he hangs up his phone. He immediately starts rifling through one of the trays on his desk until he comes up with a phone message slip that had been hidden under several files. He lets out a huff of frustration upon reading what is written there.

"Ryan? What is it?" asks a puzzled Beckett.

"My bad guys. Sorizo bailed himself out not soon after he was booked. Sorry, the message letting us know came in the afternoon of the shooting at the garage and it got buried under some other files here," admits Ryan with an apologetic look on his face.

"How was a guy who had to borrow money from our victim able to post bail so quickly?" asks Esposito.

"Probably from the money the trafficking gang was giving him," responds Castle.

"Not to worry, we'll just go pick him up. Espo, his licence said he has an address in Brooklyn right?" asks Beckett moving to her desk for her bag.

Castle answers before the burly detective can, "We may not find him there. It looks like Sorizo hasn't updated his DMV records or might even have altered them. Sam found out that he is now living in a house in Queens."

"Just in case Espo, you and Ryan check the address in Brooklyn while Castle and I check the one in Queens," orders Beckett as they all make their way out of the bullpen.

* * *

As Beckett and Castle make their way up the front path of Sorizo's Queens address Beckett signals to the two Queens uniforms that had met them there. Nodding in understanding the two officers make their way to the back of the house. Beckett, with Castle close behind her, mounts the steps at the front of the house, she moves her coat to one side and rests her hand on the grip of her gun. Upon reaching the front door she gives a final glance towards the serious face of Castle and then raises her other hand and knocks on the door.

"Paul Sorizo, NYPD, open the door!" she yells in her commanding voice.

She pauses to listen for any movement inside and then pounds on the door again and tries again, "Open up Sorizo!"

Just as she is about to try the door knob there is the sound of a door slamming inside the house. With a look to Castle she draws her gun, takes a step back and with all her strength and the assistance of her heavy high heeled boots Beckett kicks in the door. Gun raised she rushes through the door with Castle close on her heels. With a distinct feeling of deja vu she spots the receding black hoody wearing form of Sorizo running down the hall in front of her towards the rear of the house.

"NYPD! Stop Sorizo!" she demands as she moves quickly to follow.

Sorizo glances over his shoulder at Beckett as he rushes into the kitchen at the rear of the house and reaches for the back door. He wrenches the door open and barrels out, straight into the waiting arms of the two uniformed officers standing there. Beckett holsters her gun as she joins the officers and the struggling Sorizo. The uniforms handcuff Sorizo, who has a desperate look in his eyes and she announces, "Paul Sorizo you are under arrest as an accessory to kidnaping and the murder of Sam Carmody!" She looks at the uniforms, "Read him his rights and take him to my car."

Meanwhile inside the house Castle has fallen behind. Knowing that Sorizo was going to be captured by the waiting uniforms he has become interested in the swinging door that he surmised Sorizo had just appeared from. He thought that this was the source of the slamming sound he'd heard outside. The door is set into the side of the wooden panelled void under the stairs that lead to the upper floor of the house. Pushing the door inwards with his knuckle, so not to leave fingerprints, he peers inside. There, in the glow of a single bulb set into the wall, he sees a set of stairs leading down to what he assumes must be the basement. As he steps into the stairwell he hears the faint sound of movement from somewhere beneath him. He slowly makes his way down the steps into the darkness waiting at their end. Reaching bottom of the stairs he looks around. From the light in the stairwell he can just make out a sink, washer and dryer in front of him. To his right he sees a metal door, open slightly in a cinderblock wall that must lead to the rest of the basement. He hears again that faint sound of movement behind the door, something that almost sounds like chains. As he reaches for the handle of the door he has the simultaneous thoughts, maybe he should get Beckett and surely it can't be another tiger.

Beckett watches as the uniforms lead Sorizo away. She then looks behind her for Castle and upon not seeing him there goes back inside looking for him. Seeing an empty kitchen and hallway in front of her she is about to call out when she hears a muffled shout from ahead.

"BECKETT!"

"CASTLE?" she replies as she hurries, concerned, towards the sound of his voice. Reaching the hallway and the door under the stairs she hears, "KATE! DOWN HERE! QUICK!" coming from what she can now see is the stairwell leading to the basement.

Drawing her gun she rapidly makes her way down the stairs to the sound of his voice. Like Castle before her she sees the same sink, washer and dryer at the base of the stairs and the now wide open steel door to her right. Gun up, she calls, "Castle? Where are you?"

"In here Kate!" comes his desperate sounding voice from the open door.

She follows the sound of his voice and enters the room behind the door. The lack of windows in the room means that it is normally pitch black but the light from the torch app on Castle's phone on the ground next to him is illuminating a corner of the room. There she can see Castle crouched down on his knees in front of a shape there.

"Castle?" she asks again as she goes to him.

As she approaches he moves to one side and she can now see he is crouched over a body. The body of a woman with long blond hair chained to the wall. He turns, looks up at Beckett and in a voice that betrays that he can't believe what he's saying himself, "Kate, its Julie Carmody and she's alive!"

* * *

_A/N : So hands up who saw that coming? Did I sign post it enough or too much? Hope it's not too much a Disney solution (even though they do own the show) yet it wouldn't be Castle without at least an attempt at a twist._


	15. Chapter 15

_A/N : Not much action in this one but everything gets tied up. Once again I really appreciate everyone that has viewed, reviewed, faved and followed this story._

_Disclaimer : Andrew Marlowe, David Amann, ABC/Disney and the rest of the writers are responsible for Castle. I just enjoy coming up with scenarios for their creations._

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For the second time Beckett and Castle enter the interview room to the waiting Sorizo. The differences this time are that Sorizo is shackled to strong points on the table in front of him which was likewise bolted to the floor. He also has a smartly dressed, young male lawyer next to him and Sorizo is looking at the couple defiantly as they enter. The pair of them take seats opposite Sorizo and take a moment as Beckett carefully sets the rather thick file folder on the table between them. She opens the folder and takes out several photos and sheets of paper and sets them out on the table for all to see.

In the observation room, Ryan, Esposito and Captain Gates look at each other and then turn to watch the scene on the other side of the of the glass. The scene of their friends/colleagues/subordinate/annoying dilettante wannabe cop, depending on the individual's point of view, as they start their task of confronting the now much more sinister Sorizo.

Beckett studies what she's displayed on the table for a moment as Castle looks at Sorizo in the eye with revulsion. Looking up from the table she fixes Sorizo with her own calm and determined gaze. A gaze that leaves no doubt that she has her man and there is nothing that Sorizo can say to get out of it, even with the suit of a lawyer sitting next to him.

It's the suit that is the first to speak with a condescending air, "Detective, my client has taken my advice and is refusing to speak."

"That's all right counsellor. We don't need him to. The DA just wanted us to give him an opportunity to confess so that there could be a shorter trial. We have all the evidence we need to convict him. Convict him of the kidnapping, unlawful detention and repeated rape of Julie Carmody. Convict him of being an accessory to multiple counts of kidnapping by the human trafficking gang he became associated with AND convict him as an accessory to the murder of Samuel Carmody," completes Beckett with the same cool gaze into the eyes of the lawyer.

Castle continues just as seriously as his partner, "Besides all the physical evidence we collected at his residence, which includes all his computer equipment that the NYPD techs are having a field day going through." He pauses to look at Sorizo mockingly, "You know Paul for a guy so adept at hacking other people's computers our techs are having no trouble at all getting into yours. We have the testimony of one Hertzog Jellich, a member of the human trafficking gang and the murderer of Samuel Carmody." Castle taps the photo of a man on the table in front of him. The same bearded, tattooed and short haired man that had held the girl hostage and threatened Castle at the warehouse. "Not to mention the testimony of Julie Carmody."

Sorizo's now less defiant and glassier eyes flick to Beckett as she resumes, "Let's start with where we came into this and the murder of Samuel Carmody. After the joint NYPD/FBI raid of the warehouse where the human trafficking gang were operating CSU tested the ballistics of all the weapons found there. A match was found with one of the 9mm Glock hand guns recovered there," she indicates to a photo of the gun on the table between them. "A match with the slug taken from the shoulder of Samuel Carmody which our ME determined was shot into him just before he was killed. Crushed to death behind a dumpster that was hit by a van. The same van whose damage CSU linked to the murder scene and was found at the same warehouse," indicating to another photo on the table showing a close up of the smashed front of the van. "Fingerprints on the gun matched Hertzog Jellich who was one of the many members of the human trafficking gang captured in the raid. Unlike Paul here, faced with a murder charge and feeling no particular loyalty to an outsider like Paul, he's been more than co-operative in outlining Paul's involvement in Sam's murder."

Demonstrating how in sync the couple are Castle takes up the narration without a missed beat, "Jellich has outlined how Paul approached the gang about a month ago and offered his services as a hacker. How, after being initially suspicious of him, that he proved his usefulness by hacking DMV databases and giving them the contact details of several single, isolated young women. Details he obtained by hacking into modelling agency websites, which the gang used to target and then kidnap. How, after working with them for two weeks, he brought to their attention that Sam Carmody was investigating their operation and was a threat. How, knowing Sam was following him, he deliberately lured Sam to a meeting with the gang in Hamilton Heights, so they could take care of him. It took some clever interrogation by Detective Beckett of Jellich but in the end he admitted to also being the driver of the van that crushed Sam."

"It also helped that CSU found his DNA in the van. He also admitted that you were right there, in the passenger seat of the van, as it rammed those dumpsters, crushing Sam to death. And guess what? There was your DNA right there in the van as well," interjects Beckett. "I'll admit we were lucky. The gang had wiped the van for prints and Jellich told us they were about to dump and burn it but we raided them first."

Castle continues, "The motive, or should I say motives, are obvious. Firstly you wanted to hide your involvement with the human traffickers. Secondly, and the real reason you approached the gang in the first place, you needed to get rid of Sam before he found out what you did to his sister."

"You almost broke her Paul, but on hearing what you did to her brother she's somehow found the strength to tell us everything," adds Beckett pointing at the written statement on the table in front of them. "How that a month after moving here, to pursue her dream of becoming a model, she just happened to run into you. A college friend of her brother Sam that she'd met a couple of times before back in California when visiting her brother."

"Bit of a coincidence that," interjects Castle this time. "In a city of millions of people you just happen to run into the sister of your college buddy. It's almost like you followed her out here. Almost as if during those brief encounters with her in California that you'd become obsessed with her and decided to follow and stalk her when she came to New York."

"Stalk her and then, when she finally turned you down and was getting ready to tell her brother about your unwanted attention, you decided that you needed to have her all to yourself," continues Beckett the contempt plain in her voice. "So you kidnap her and imprison her in the basement of your grandparents' old house, which they'd conveniently left you when they died."

"According to your financials, you weren't as hard up for cash as you led Sam or us to believe," adds Castle with his own contempt. "Looks like, with the money your grandparents left you, the money you were getting from the kidnappers for your services and the money you conned out of Sam that you were doing pretty well for yourself."

"When Sam turned up looking for Julie and came to you for help you were in the prime position to send him on all sorts of wild goose chases. Conning him out of his money while all the time you were the one responsible for her disappearance. Did you feel powerful Paul? Having Julie so completely under your control while you strung along her brother and kept tabs on his search for her. Draining him of money so that he'd eventually be forced to go home," adds Beckett looking into Sorizo's eyes. Eyes that had gone from glassy to calculating.

"But that wasn't working out. Sam just wouldn't let it go wouldn't give up and so you needed another way. Sam had become suspicious of you and you found out so you decided to get rid of him and that's where your new friends the trafficking gang came in. Or rather that was the reason you contacted the gang in the first place. You knew that you couldn't string Sam along forever so you intended for the gang to get rid of Sam all along. Then you would be sure to have Julie all to yourself," says Castle as he leans back in his chair with a look of confidence at the creature in front of him as he puts together his motives.

"That's speculation," interjects the lawyer.

"I think you'll find that a jury will find it very plausible counsellor," reposts Beckett. "Plus it's not speculation when we have our victim's own notes and photos corroborating that he had found out about your client's involvement with the trafficking gang and keeping that and the fact that he was holding Julie Carmody against her will quiet were all the motive he needed for Sam's murder. He was just as responsible as if he was behind the wheel of that van."

"Then there was the little performance you put on for us when we discovered you at Sam's apartment," continues Castle tapping another photo on the table. "Turns out Sam had his apartment wired to check if anyone entered it when he wasn't there. Almost as if he'd become suspicious that someone might try and break in and steal the information on his computers. Turns out he was right because here we have you with our dead suspect, Gregori Motaravich, entering Sam's apartment just after Sam's murder and then leaving later with the missing hard drives. But what I find really interesting is that in the first photo you are carrying Sam's backpack. The same backpack he was wearing when he was killed and was taken by his killers. The same backpack we found at the gang's warehouse and which had both Sam's blood and your fingerprints all over it. "

Beckett taps another photo, "Then you return later, just before we arrive, because you couldn't access the information on the hard drives and your new friends needed you to double check that there was no information on their human trafficking operation at Sam's place. I bet you thought we wouldn't be able to identify Sam so you had all the time in the world to search. You had to try and find the means to access the drives you'd already taken because even with your supposed superior hacking skills you couldn't get past Sam's hardware block." The disparaging of his hacking skills brought a very slight reaction of anger to Sorizo's eyes. Beckett's lips quirked in satisfaction at that, "After we caught you the first time and then you bailed yourself out you contacted the gang and told them that if they followed us we might lead them to Sam's information on them. That's how they knew to follow us to Sam's garage in Hamilton Heights. That adds a charge of conspiracy and accessory to the attempted murder of a police officer to the list by the way."

"Not to mention a renowned mystery writer as well," adds Castle for good measure.

Sorizo's face was now showing contempt at the couple in front of him despite the litany of evidence that had just been laid out in front of him. This just reinforces Beckett and Castle's conviction of Sorizo's sociopathic nature and that they are dealing with a true monster. He still hadn't said a word and looked like he had no intention to. His lawyer, on the other hand, seeing a sure loser in front of him, decided to speak up.

"Is there a deal we can make?"

Beckett fixes the lawyer with a look that says 'Are you serious' and responds, "No counsellor, no deals. As we said we are only here to give your client the opportunity to confess. Also, to show your client that there is no way he is getting away with all that he has done. So, last chance Paul. Want to confess?"

Sorizo just stares back at the detective defiantly but also thanks to her keen reading skills she can tell that he is seething inside at being caught. Beckett gathers up the evidence from the table and as she and Castle stand she gives a parting shot, "No Paul? Well, enjoy the rest of your life behind bars. At least Julie Carmody will have the comfort knowing that you will be forever out of her life and that you'll be locked up for eighty times longer than she was."

"And maybe some nice lifer will show you the same hospitality that you showed her," finishes Castle as the couple leave interrogation.

Outside they are met by Captain Gates, Esposito and Ryan. "So no confession Detective," states Gates.

"No Sir, but as I told him we don't need it and I didn't expect one. Not from someone like him. We've all we need to put him away and give some small amount closure to Julie Carmody," responds Beckett as they all walk towards her desk.

"How did he find the trafficking gang in the first place when your victim and the FBI couldn't?" asks Gates.

"That's probably the only thing he can tell us for sure. We can only speculate that during his hacking attempts for Sam he somehow found information on the gang, which he didn't give to Sam and so decided to contact them both for some cash and a means of getting rid of him," supplies Castle.

Gates gives Castle one of her looks which indicates that she'd rather hear any speculation from a sworn detective, then turns to Beckett, "Well done Detective. It's a good thing that you were able to discover his true involvement with this."

"We wouldn't have put it together if it wasn't for Castle. He kept looking at the evidence on the SD card but I think he even had his suspicions about Sorizo from our first interview with him," replies Beckett giving an appreciative look at her fiancé walking next to her.

"I just remember now that I got this feeling when Sorizo looked at that picture of Julie during the interview. That there was something predatory about it I couldn't place it at the time. I didn't have the full story. I'm just glad that we were able to rescue Julie and bring justice for Sam," says Castle with a slight amount of satisfaction.

"Yes, well thank you Mr Castle for your assistance. I'm glad you can occasionally contribute positively to Detective Beckett's team," and with that Gates turns on her heels and walks off to her office.

"Damm, I should have had my phone recording. I think that's one of the few times she's paid me a compliment since I gave her that creepy doll," says Castle with surprise at the receding form of the Captain.

"Yeah, she must be slipping bro," comments Esposito and he and Ryan share a grin with their friend before moving off to their own desks.

Beckett likewise smiles at the comment and sits at her desk as Castle takes his. She looks at him and says, "You also didn't tell her that, after the trial, you've arranged for Julie to go back to her aunt in Arizona and to see one of the best therapists there. All at your own expense."

Castle looks sheepishly at his fiancé, "I should have known that you'd find out about that."

Beckett gives him her patent look that says 'Ya think!' but inside she is proud of him. That he would be so caring and selfless for someone he's barely met is just a further reason why she loves him.

"Anyway, after what she's been through it's the least I can do. Of course, now that the case is solved and once all the paperwork is done, you know what that means?" asks Castle with a warning look.

"What?" asks a puzzled Beckett.

"Now there is no excuse for you not to talk to my mother's acting class," says Castle reminding her of that hasty promise of hers.

Beckett pauses and in a disbelieving tone responds, "How bad could it be?"

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_A/N : I don't think I missed anything here. I should have tied it all up. There is just one last chapter left. Just an epilogue really and then we're done. Thanks again for reading._


	16. Chapter 16

_A/N : So here we are the end. Not the longest of stories but an episode is only so long and that is what I'm trying to emulate here. I hope all of you that stuck with this story have liked it. As I said all along I really appreciate everyone that has reviewed, faved and followed this story. I enjoyed writing it and have learned a few things in the process. I've plenty of ideas for future stories. The challenge, as always, is transferring them to the page. _

_Disclaimer : Castle is the creation of Andrew W Marlowe, David Amann, ABC/Disney and the rest of the Castle writers. I respect what they created and it inspired me to get back into writing. _

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Martha breezes into Castle's loft seemingly without a care in the world and addresses the three people following her, "Well dears that was so enlightening but so exhausting. I'm off to bed. Ta Ta!"

With a wave over her shoulder she proceeds up the stairs to her bedroom, unaware of the turmoil she has left behind. Beckett is being supported on either side by Castle and Alexis as she is led into the loft in the wake of Martha. Each of them have their arms entwined with one of hers, are holding her hands and are more or less holding her up. The normally self-assured detective is wearing a look of shocked disbelief on her face as her fiancé and soon to be step daughter guide her to the couch.

"Come on Kate. Sit down over here and I'll get us a drink," says Castle in a soothing and understanding tone as she sinks onto the couch. He then moves to the liquor cabinet to get something to easy his fiancé's turmoil.

Alexis sits next to her and puts her arm around Beckett's shoulder, "Don't take Grams so seriously Kate. She's not being mean she's just being her. She loves you this is just her unique way of showing it."

"But some of the things she said and in front of all those people," Beckett whispers in shock, staring in front of herself in disbelief. A high ball glass with a very generous amount of scotch appears in her vision.

"Here, this will help," says Castle as he offers her the glass.

She takes the glass automatically, without really seeing it and takes a long gulp. She drains the glass without tasting the 25 year old single malt at all. Castle sits down next to her and gives a look to his daughter as he does so.

Alexis takes the hint and moves her arm from around Beckett's shoulder and gives her a reassuring squeeze of her upper arm, "Don't worry Kate. It won't look so bad in the morning. Speaking of which I think I'll head to bed too. Nite!" and with that she gets up and heads to the stairs.

"Goodnight Pumpkin!" calls Castle giving her a smile.

"Yeah, nite Alexis," responds Kate vaguely.

With his own glass of scotch in one hand he puts his other arm around Beckett's shoulder and pulls her into his chest.

"Don't say it Rick," warns Beckett.

"Say what?" asks Castle surprised.

"I told you so," she responds in an almost resigned tone.

Castle gives her shoulders a squeeze, "Oh I wouldn't do that to you now. That comes tomorrow."

Beckett gives a huff and moves her head from his chest to look up into his face. She sees his lips threatening to twitch into a smirk. She narrows her eye at him and then remembers exactly when she said those same words to him causing her to roll her eyes. But her own lips also twitch into an almost smile at the memory. He sees that he's almost succeeded in getting her to smile and forget the night so now he decides that some more reassurance is required. He puts his hand to the side of her face and looks into her hazel eyes.

"Kate, don't take it personally. If anything tonight goes to show is that my mother truly thinks of you as a member of the family."

"But she criticized everything I do and how I do it. She called me an amateur and said I only had a rudimentary knowledge of the human condition. All to a room of strangers," she responds desperately.

Castle wisely keeps to himself his own thoughts on Beckett's knowledge of the human condition and how that had influenced their relationship over the years. Especially as it takes two people to make a relationship. He freely admitted to himself that he had made his own contributions to how long it took them to get together. The important thing is where they were now and now was all about helping the love of his life.

"Yes and she only does that to people she really loves. It's her way. Alexis and I have had all our lives to get used to it or to be at least resigned to it. You'll learn that when you're a Castle you have to have a pretty thick skin when dealing with my mother sometimes. But she's also the best person to have in your corner and she'll do anything for family," he says stroking her cheek.

Beckett looks at the reassurance in his eyes and leans her face into his hand, "Well I better hurry up and become a Castle then so that I can get that thick skin."

As the couple look into each other's eyes they share a smile both thinking of their future together and all that they will share.

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_A/N : Thank you for reading :)_


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